In a world where financial transactions ping around the world in a fraction of a second, the booming triangular trade underscores the gold market’s reliance on lumps of metal. In normal times, claims on billions of dollars of gold are traded without the bars ever leaving a vault.

Gold climbed as investors assessed the outlook for the US economy and the Federal Reserve interest-rate path following the latest inflation print and the start of President Donald Trump’s metal tariffs.

The measure raises a flat duty on steel and aluminium entering the US to 25% and ends all country exemptions to the levies. Several countries, including the UK and Australia, have tried to secure carve-outs without success.