Gold Rises From Five-Week Low as Ukraine Concerns Mount
President Barack Obama urged Russia to defuse the crisis over Ukraine or face more sanctions if it encroaches further into the country after the annexation of Crimea. Gold declined 3.1 percent last week after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said interest rates may start to rise in early 2015.
“There is some safe-haven buying because of Russia,” Tom Power, a senior commodity broker at R.J. O’Brien & Associates in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “We could also see some increase in physical demand after the big price drop.”
Gold futures for June delivery rose less than 0.1 percent to settle at $1,311.40 an ounce at 1:45 p.m. on the Comex in New York. Earlier, the price touched $1,305.90, the lowest for a most-active contract since Feb. 14. Trading was 38 percent higher than the average for the past 100 days for this time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
This year, gold has climbed 9.1 percent on signs of a faltering global economy, whiled Russia’s annexation of Crimea sparked the most-serious confrontation with the West since the Cold War.