Why are bankers bringing gold en masse to New York

The additional duties announced by US President Donald Trump in various fields are already beginning to have interesting consequences. For example, they forced major banks, starting with JP Morgan and HSBC, to transport billions of dollars in gold on commercial planes from London to New York.

The price of gold, which rises in times of uncertainty and instability, has increased even more. Futures contracts for gold, contracts for its future delivery at a pre-agreed price have risen, and precious metals market analysts quoted by the Wall Street Journal say that they will continue to increase.

Usually, prices in the two markets (London and New York) are relatively synchronized, since traders can supply gold to each other whenever there is a price gap. Banks play an important role here, as they keep bullion in their vaults, as he writes Hotnews.ro .

But now banks selling gold futures contracts are suffering significant losses, as prices in the US have risen higher than in London.

Instead of buying back gold at a loss, there was a better option — to deliver physical gold from London in New York to fulfill the concluded contracts. This move allows bankers to avoid losses and even make a profit by selling gold at a higher price in the United States.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this month JPMorgan alone plans to deliver gold equivalent to $4 billion to New York. Such a large amount of gold has caused a real logistical nightmare: Some customers had to wait up to a week to collect their gold from the Bank of England's vault. The cheapest and safest way to transport such large volumes of gold is commercial flights, to which security companies deliver the precious metal in armored vans.