FLASH NEWS
US gold soars on stock market after Trump tariffs
2025-08-08 23:43:02 / EKONOMI&SOCIALE
US gold futures hit a record high on Friday, August 8, after the Donald Trump administration surprised the global gold market with a plan to impose tariffs on imports of one kilogram and 100-ounce gold bars.
In a move that analysts and investors warned could reshape the global gold trade, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency ruled that these bars should be subject to customs duties, dashing expectations that they would be exempt from tariffs.
The CBP move, first reported by the Financial Times, is a particular blow to Switzerland, the world's largest exporter of the metal. Relations between Washington and Berne had soured last week after the US announced a 39% tariff on Swiss imports.
US gold futures rose to a new daily record of $3,534 per troy ounce (standard unit for international precious metal trading, 1 troy ounce ≈ 31.1035 grams) on Friday, while prices in London remained unchanged.
The news came as a “ big surprise ,” said Joni Teves, an analyst at UBS, adding: “ This is exactly what the market was afraid of.”
In a sign of the disruption caused in the market, gold futures contracts on the Comex exchange in New York diverged significantly from spot prices (the current market price), reaching a premium of more than $100 per ounce on Friday.
Analysts warned that the tariff also risks New York's role as the world's largest market for gold contracts, as it raises the price of gold in the US compared to other regions.
“This creates a problem for the global gold market, which uses Comex contracts to hedge positions,” Teves said. “ The question is whether there might be alternative ways to settle these contracts, whether in terms of products or locations, or whether other centers become more important.”
When Trump launched broad tariffs on what he called " liberation day " in early April, they included an exemption for a category of gold that covered the majority of gold imports into the US.
A briefing document released by the White House on April 2 also stated that "gold bullion" was exempt from the so-called reciprocal tariffs.
However, CBP's decision, contained in an official letter dated July 31, overturned a long-standing practice in the market, determining that gold bars weighing one kilogram and 100 ounces must be classified under a different customs code, one that is not included in the list of exceptions.
Traders had piled up a record amount of gold on the Comex exchange earlier this year as they prepared for the possibility, however remote, that gold would be included in the tariffs.
“Today’s price movements would have been much more violent if banks and other financial institutions had not moved so much gold into the U.S. over the past eight months, ” said John Reade, senior market strategist at the World Gold Council. “In the end, caution proved to be the right choice.”
Some market participants unofficially believe that CBP may have made a mistake and hope that the customs department will reverse the decision./ Financial Times
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