American Eagle and South African Krugerrand gold bullion is offered for sale at the Chicago Coin Company May 11, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Gold advanced on Monday as a selloff in Wall Street driven by geopolitical tensions over Ukraine bolstered its safe-haven appeal, while investors prepared for the Federal Reserve’s rate hike decision.
Spot gold rose 0.4% to $1,840.16 per ounce. U.S. gold futures settled up 0.5% at $1,841.70.
NATO said it was putting forces on standby in eastern Europe in response to Russia’s military build-up at Ukraine’s borders.
“The Ukraine story is positive for gold and the Fed policy will eventually evolve into a little bit more conservative tapering since the Fed still believes a lot of this is going to be transitory,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at brokerage OANDA.
The selloff on Wall Street worsened on the Ukraine-Russia tensions and expectations that the Fed would tighten monetary policy at a much faster pace to tame high inflation.
But CMC Markets UK chief market analyst Michael Hewson said the Fed was unlikely to have a big impact on gold at present “because the markets are more concerned about what’s going on in eastern Europe,” especially considering a March interest rate hike has been priced in.
Gold also seemed to shake off, to some extent, pressure from inflows into rival safe-haven dollar.
But while gold is considered a hedge against inflation and geopolitical risks, interest rate hikes would raise the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
“Assuming that the current wave of risk aversion ebbs away eventually as the Fed addresses these fears, and barring a deterioration of the economic outlook, we thus believe that the gold and silver markets are again experiencing a temporary but no lasting rebound,” Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke said.
Spot silver dropped 1.9% to $23.78 an ounce and platinum slipped 1.1% to $1,017.81, while palladium rose 2% to $2,149.35.
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