Spot gold (XAU=) held its ground at $1,955.80 per ounce by 0805 GMT, counting almost 2% this week. U.S. gold futures (GCv1) shed 0.4% to $1,955.10.
Ilya Spivak, a currency strategist at DailyFX, would assign the most recent gold gains to worries regarding Ukraine starting to creep back in because we haven’t had the kind of progress on talks he thinks markets were hoping for around the month.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukrainians “need to achieve peace” and halt Russian bombardment that has pushed millions to flee to countries such as Poland.
Rising tensions in Ukraine stoked geopolitical tension and demand for safe-haven assets such as gold.
Spivak said that the surge in yields and the Fed is seen as aggressive kept that bounce from gaining any meaningful momentum.
Yields staying even
The U.S. Federal Reserve increased borrowing costs by 25 basis points on March 16. Since then, top central bank policymakers have signaled a more confrontational approach to monetary policy tightening this year to fight rising inflation.
Yields on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note (US10YT=RR) remained close to their 2019 highs, lowering the opportunity cost of holding non-paying bullion.
OANDA senior analyst Jeffrey Halley said in a note while referring to gold’s long-term price action that gold has shown more recently that prices rise slowly up the stairs and then jump out of the 10th-floor window, and he believes those risks remain.
Spot silver (XAG=) was flat at $25.50 per ounce, while platinum (XPT=) increased 0.4% to $1,024.20 and palladium (XPD=) was up 0.2% at $2,528.26.
