Gold Down, Focus Remains on Ukrainian Conflict By Investing.com

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was down on Friday morning in Asia after a roller-coaster session the day before. Investors continue to re-assess the situation surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Thursday as well as further Western sanctions against Russia.

fell 0.53% to $1,916.10 by 11:16 PM ET (4:16 AM GMT). The safe-haven yellow metal climbed more than 3% on Thursday to hit its highest level since September 2020 at $1,973.96 but closed the session lower.

vowed on Friday to stay in the capital city of Kyiv. Ukrainian forces continue to fight the Russian invasion, the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

U.S. President Joe Biden slapped more sanctions on Russia aimed at impeding the latter’s ability to do business in major currencies. The U.S. has already placed sanctions against Russian banks and state-owned enterprises.

Central banks and their policies are also on investors’ radars. The U.S. Federal Reserve is still set to hike interest rates in March 2022, while the European Central Bank said that the conflict in Ukraine could delay, but not stop, the start of asset tapering.

In Asia Pacific, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand aims to hike interest rates as quickly as possible to contain inflation and avoid the need for even greater policy tightening in the future, said Governor Adrian Orr.

Meanwhile, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest in gold and other precious metals saw massive inflows as investors fled to safe-haven assets.

Palladium is up nearly 28% in 2022 to date, while gold has gained about 4.5%. Palladium jumped 1.4% after hitting its highest level since July 2021 at $2,711.18 on Thursday, while platinum was up 0.4% and silver gained 0.5%.