Gold hits 17-month high amid Russia-Ukraine war

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The price of gold climbed above $2,000 on Monday, hitting its highest level in 17 months as Russia's war on Ukraine intensifies fear and uncertainty in global markets.

Investors have been rushing to safe haven assets in precious metals, such as gold and silver, while commodity prices like crude oil and wheat are also on the rise.

Gold price climbed to as high as $2,007.10 per ounce earlier, reaching its highest level since Aug. 18, 2020, according to official figures. Gold was trading around $2,005 an ounce for a 2% daily gain around 1100 GMT.

Price of silver jumped to $26.145 per ounce earlier, its highest since July 16, 2021. It was around $26.02 an ounce with a 1.2% daily increase at the time.

Oil prices also soared as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on late Sunday that Washington and its allies are in active talks to ban Russian crude oil imports.

International oil benchmark Brent crude jumped on early Monday to $130.89. American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) jumped to $130.33. Both benchmarks marked their highest levels since July 22, 2008, according to official figures.

Brent crude was hovering near $125 per barrel with a 5.8% daily gain at 1105 GMT, while WTI was at $122.5 a barrel with a 5.9% increase.

Major stock exchanges from Asia to Europe were all in red, as investors are turning into either cash or safe haven assets.

Risky assets, on the other hand, such as cryptocurrencies were on the decline.

Bitcoin, the world's largest crypto by market value, fell 2.2% to as low as $37,596 earlier in the day, after slightly recovering to $38,109 at 1110 GMT. It fell almost 2.5% on Sunday.

Ethereum, the world's biggest altcoin, saw its price declining 1.9% to $2,500. It later recovered to $2,528 at the time. Ethereum lost almost 4.4% the previous day.

Total value of the cryptocurrency market was down 1.2% to $1.71 trillion at the time.

While total market capitalization of gold is estimated around $12.7 trillion, market cap of silver is almost at $1.5 trillion.