Gold briefly crosses $2,000 mark, palladium hits record high on Ukraine crisis

Spot gold was up 0.59% to $1,980.07 per ounce, shortly after 10 a.m. ET, after briefly hitting its highest price since Aug. 19, 2020

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Palladium was down 2.47% at $2,928.09 per ounce, after hitting an all-time high of more than $3,440 earlier in the day

U.S. gold futures rose about 1.05% to $1,987.30

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Gold prices briefly scaled the $2,000 level for the first time in 1-1/2 years, as investors rushed to the safety of the metal in the wake of an escalating Russia-Ukraine crisis, while supply disruption fears sent palladium to an all-time high on Monday

Spot gold was up 0.59% to $1,980.07 per ounce, shortly after 10 a.m. ET, after scaling its highest price since Aug. 19, 2020 at $2,000.69 earlier in the day. U.S. gold futures rose about 1.05% to $1,987.30

“Gold will likely find some heavy traffic around the $2,000 level initially, but once it is cleared, assuming no change in the Ukraine situation, it will quickly move to the $2,100 region and on to new all-time highs,” said OANDA senior analyst Jeffrey Halley

Fighting stopped about 200,000 people from evacuating the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol for the second day in a row on Sunday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press ahead with his invasion unless Kyiv surrendered

Holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, rose to their highest since mid-March 2021 on Friday

Spot gold may keep rising towards $2,065 per ounce, according to Reuters’ technical analyst Wang Tao.

Palladium was down 2.47% at $2,928.09 per ounce, after hitting an all-time high of more than $3,440 earlier in the day

Russia accounts for 40% of global production of the auto-catalyst metal, used by automakers in catalytic converters to curb emissions

“We’re looking at a very significant pick-up in concerns around the disruptions with Ukraine seemingly because the conflict is showing signs of broadening,” said Ilya Spivak, a currency strategist at DailyFX, pointing to speculations about more Western sanctions, perhaps even a formal ban on Russian oil imports