Gold-priced metals traded higher in the Asian session as recent concerns over the Russian and Ukrainian geopolitical crisis have spurred demand for safe-haven assets.
Last Friday, the United States issued a mixed statement warning that Russia would launch military action against Ukraine at any time and ordered its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the attack was likely to start during the Olympics in Beijing despite various speculations that it would happen after the event.
Sullivan added that they did not know when Russian President Putin would issue an official directive, but ‘it will happen soon’.
Following this statement, financial markets began to panic and continued to turn to safe-haven assets such as gold as protection.
This prompted gold prices to skyrocket to their latest three -month high, touching $ 1,865 an ounce at the end of last week's trading.
The strengthening of the yellow metal continued until the opening of trading today, which saw it trade higher at around $ 1,858 per ounce (at the time of writing).
To date, most countries including Europe have ordered their citizens living in Ukraine to leave the country.
