Gold Up, Near 3-Month High as Ukraine Worries Drive Flight to Safety By Investing.com

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Tuesday morning in Asia, heading towards a three-month peak hit during the previous session. Fears that Russia will invade Ukraine continue to mount and investors pull back from riskier assets.

gained 0.58% to $ 1,888.15 by 11:36 PM ET (4:36 AM GMT), after hitting their highest level since Nov. 16 at $ 1,873.91 during the previous session. closed higher in nine of the past 11 sessions.

Global shares fell on Monday, while oil climbed to seven-year highs, as the US warned of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine and decreased investors’ risk appetites.

Benchmark also eased, also giving the safe-haven yellow metal a boost.

In Asia Pacific, data released earlier in the day showed that grew 1.3% and 5.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Although declining numbers of COVID-19 cases in the country helped boost consumption, rising raw material costs and a surge in new Omicron variant infections clouded the outlook.

The Reserve Bank of Australia also released the earlier in the day, with the US Federal Reserve due to release on Wednesday.

Fed officials continue to debate how aggressive upcoming interest rate hikes should be ahead of their March 2022 meeting. The US releases its later in the day, with China releasing its own and a day later.

In other precious metals, silver and platinum both edged up 0.2%. Palladium was up 0.3% to $ 2,368.33, after hitting its highest level in nearly two weeks on Monday.