Health of US economy may be Key for Gold, not Ukraine crisis: Deutsche Bank

UNITED STATES March 08 2014 10:53 AM

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): The health of the United States economy at some point is likely to take center stage away from the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine, said Deutsche Bank.

According to the German Bank, gold hit a four-month high early this week on safe-haven buying on worries about Russia’s presence in Ukraine’s Crimea region.

“Events in Ukraine have provided a lift to the gold price alongside other safe havens such as the Swiss franc and to some extent the Japanese yen,” said the Bank.

“However, history shows that the positive effect of geopolitical events on the gold prices has moderated significant since the 1970s and that any positive effects tend to fade rapidly. We expect events today will be no different and that the most important driver of the gold price will be real (economic) data in the U.S. and how this will affect the course of U.S. long-term real interest rates and the U.S. dollar,” the firm continued.

If there were to be any lasting impact to precious metals from the Crimean crisis, it likely would be in palladium, should any international measures against Russia disrupt Russian exports, given that the country is the world’s largest producer, Deutsche Bank concluded.