The large inflows of gold and silver into the United States abruptly stopped after the administration exempted precious metals from newly proposed tariffs.
For several months, the prospect of tariffs created unusually large price premiums in New York relative to other global markets. That disparity encouraged traders to ship an estimated $80 billion-plus of bullion into the U.S. to capture arbitrage gains.
Those flows distorted U.S. trade statistics and were a factor behind a record trade deficit reported in January. Once the exemptions were announced, the price gap between U.S. and London markets narrowed sharply: the difference in gold prices fell from about $62 to $23 per ounce, and the silver premium dropped from over $1 to roughly $0.24 per ounce.
U.S. precious metals inventories climbed to record levels during the arbitrage window. Since November, reported gold holdings rose by roughly 26.5 million ounces and silver stocks increased by about 174.6 million ounces.