• The precious metal – Gold climbed to reach a eight month high on Tuesday Asian session.
• Chatters of arrival of war troops, machines near Ukraine-Russia border creates tension and weighs on the market sentiment.
• U.S. Federal Reserve officials continued sparring over how aggressively to begin interest rate hikes at their March meeting.

The yellow metal prices edged higher to an eight month high of $1879.46 on Tuesday Morning Asian session, as heightened tension between Ukraine and Russia precipitated investors to pullback from riskier assets and opt for safe haven asset.

On Tuesday early morning, In Europe, Talks regarding satellite image conveyed fresh arrival of troops and attack helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets to forward locations on the Russia-Ukraine border gained momentum. Elsewhere, the local media news also included, “Ground units also appear to be in attack formations.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told President Putin that the US had put forward concrete proposals on reducing military risks and that he could see a way to move forward with talks. However, Russia’s Lavrov also mentioned that EU and NATO responses have not been satisfactory, and this increases the tensions and weighs on the market sentiment.

Amidst the Russia – Ukraine tension favoring the Gold, Supporting bullion on Tuesday was the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields easing thus decreasing the opportunity cost of holding non-interest-paying gold, while a slightly weaker dollar helped make the metal more attractive for overseas buyers.

Meanwhile, U.S. Federal Reserve officials continued to argue on how aggressively to begin upcoming interest rate hikes at their March meeting. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who called for a large 50 basis point increase in the previous week, reiterated calls on hiking interest rate faster on Monday.

However, Bullard’s colleagues were more cautious in their remarks, and the Fed will also release the minutes from its latest meeting on Wednesday.

Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management said “The (gold) market seems to be ignoring major central banks right now because investors are lost in the fog of war and it becomes very difficult to have a salient macro or fundamental view in this type of market where you really have to just go trade on a hair trigger.”

XAU/USD 4 Hour Chart:

Support: 1856.4 (S1), 1841.8 (S2), 1832.9 (S3).

Resistance: 1879.9 (R1), 1888.8 (R2), 1903.4 (R3).

The heightened geopolitical tension between Russia – Ukraine favors the safe haven – Gold. We expect a bullish trend for XAU/USD.