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.
Gold futures 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. Spot gold closed higher in nine of the past 11 sessions.
Global shares fell on Monday, while oil climbed to seven-year highs, as the U.S. warned of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine and decreased investors’ risk appetites.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields also eased, also giving the safe-haven yellow metal a boost.
In Asia Pacific, data released earlier in the day showed that Japan’s GDP grew 1.3% quarter-on-quarter and 5.4% year-on-year 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 minutes from its latest meeting earlier in the day, with the U.S. Federal Reserve due to release the minutes from its own meeting on Wednesday.
Fed officials continue to debate how aggressive upcoming interest rate hikes should be ahead of their March 2022 meeting. The U.S. releases its producer price index (PPI) later in the day, with China releasing its own PPI and consumer price index 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.
Source : Investing.com
