Gold soared to a five-week high as factors such as the Ukraine war, rising inflation and recession risks in the US boosted demand for safe assets.
The precious metal gained 0.5 percent in Asian markets after closing the second week with a rise.
Although the strategically vital city of Maripol in Ukraine has still not fallen, a few hours after warnings of a possible amphibious movement and air strikes from Kiev, Ukrainian officials announced that the city's defenses were surrounded by Russian forces.
Both commodities increased, with the possibility of a de facto embargo on Russian gas and oil in the next sanctions package to be announced by the European Union. This situation, together with the rising raw material prices, caused an increase in the demand for gold for hedging from inflation.
With the signs that the Fed will take an aggressive approach from raising interest rates, treasury bond yields approached 3 percent, and the rise in gold began to stabilize.
Goldman Sachs, in a past briefing, put the probability of a contraction in the economy at 35 percent in the next two years, suggesting that the Fed would face the rather challenging task of tightening enough to cool inflation without causing a recession.
Rising interest rates can put pressure on the prices of valuable non-interest-bearing commodities.
CMC Markets Analyst Kelvin Wong said, “Gold is under upward pressure due to rising inflation and rising geopolitical risks,” said Kelvin Wong, a CMC Markets Analyst.
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