Gold surged about 2 percent to a four-month high on Monday as escalating military tension between Ukraine and Russia bolstered demand for assets perceived to be relatively safe as investors sold riskier investments such as equities.
"As a result of the escalation of this conflict and the damages it's going to do to the European economy, people are going to continue to rotate out of the stock market into the gold market," said Jeffrey Sica, chief investment officer of New Jersey-based Sica Wealth Management, which has more than $1 billion in client assets. Spot gold rose as high as $1,354.80 an ounce, its loftiest since October 30. It was trading at $1,351.01, up 1.9 percent, at 3:35 pm EST (2035 GMT), its biggest daily gain since January 23.
US COMEX gold futures for April delivery settled up $28.70 at $1,350.30 an ounce, with trading volume about 10 percent above its 30-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed. Among other precious metals, silver followed gold's moves and rose 1.1 percent to $21.43 an ounce. Platinum was up 1.2 percent at $1,458 an ounce and palladium gained 0.9 percent at $745.65 an ounce.