By Bharat Gautam
(Reuters) – Gold was on track for its biggest quarterly gain since September 2020 as the metal’s safe-haven appeal increased by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and fears of rising inflation.
However, by 0938 GMT, spot gold XAU=0.5% fell to $1.93.40 an ounce, and US GCv1 gold futures fell 0.6% to $1,927.80 with lower oil prices.
Oil fell after news that the United States is considering releasing a large amount of strategic petroleum reserves to counter rising fuel prices.
“This (low oil prices) has somewhat eased market participants’ inflation fears, which means that demand for gold as a store of value appears lower initially today,” Commerzbank said in a note.
Bullion gained about 5.2% this quarter as the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February pushed gold close to a record high earlier this month. (Full Story)
Besides the Ukraine crisis, Brian Lane, managing director at trader GoldSilver Central, said that along with the Ukraine crisis, concerns about rising inflation and whether the efforts of major central banks are enough to rein it in are affecting the economy and helping gold perform well.
Meanwhile, European stocks are set for the biggest quarterly decline since the start of 2020. MKTS / GLOB
Non-yielding bullion is a safe store of value in times of uncertainty and an inflation hedge.
Gold is also still on track for a monthly rise, although it fell earlier in the month ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise borrowing costs for the first time in three years to tame inflation. (Full Story)
Silver XAG = down 0.6% to $24.69 an ounce. XPT Platinum = down 0.7% to $983.27. However, they were set to post a quarterly gain.
The automatic metallic palladium XPD fell 1.3% to $2,235.77, but is heading for the biggest quarterly jump since September 2020, after hitting record levels earlier this month after the West imposed sanctions on top producer Russia. (Full Story)
(Reporting by Bharat Govind Gautam in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Karen Daniel)
(The title and image for this report may have been reformulated only by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a shared feed.)
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