Gold Increases as The Crisis in Ukraine Persist

Spot gold (XAU=) increased 0.2% to $1,924.45 per ounce by 0712 GMT. U.S. gold futures (GCv1) were under 0.3% at $1,924.00.

Matt Simpson, the senior market analyst at City Index, stated that a little bit of safe-haven flows is going into gold today because Ukraine officially repudiated the deadline from Russia.

Ukraine on Monday denied Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol; residents are surrounded with little food, water, and power and fierce fighting shows little sign of easing.

Preventing further improvements in the metal, two of the Fed’s most hawkish policymakers stated that the central bank needs to take more aggressive steps to combat inflation.

As stated in an essay published on the regional Fed bank’s website, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari spoke he wants to raise rates from 1.75% to 2% this year.

Higher interest rates raise the opportunity cost of holding non-interest paying gold.

Supply Disruptions

Holdings of the world’s biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, rose 0.8% to 1,082.44 tonnes on Friday; a high after March 2021.

Palladium (XPD=), employed by automakers in catalytic converters to curb emissions, gained 2.8% at $2,560.71 per ounce. It had struck a record high of $3,440.76 on March 7, driven by fears of supply disruptions from top producer Russia.

The auto-catalyst metal responds more reasonably to the events unfolding in Ukraine because Ukraine officially said no to Russia. It puts peace talks on the back foot. Of course, that brings further worries oversupplying constraints moving forward, Simpson added.

Spot silver (XAG=) was even at $24.96 per ounce, platinum (XPT=) rose 0.4% to $1,025.83.