• The yellow metal remains on the front foot as traders seek risk-safety amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine woes.
• US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explores legislation that would ban Russian oil imports, weighs on the market sentiment.
• Upbeat Employment data favors the Fed hawks and raises the rate hike expectation.

Gold prices has scaled the $2000 level on Monday, the highest level since last one and a half year as Market flocked towards the safety of the metal due to escalating Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Russia is continuing in the bombardment of Ukraine. The UK Times reports that Russian forces In Ukraine are decimated, but this raises the risks of intensified attacks as Vladimir Putin ups the ante. Ukraine fears larger scale airstrikes and heavier artillery.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, has pleaded for a no-fly zone over his country and lashed out at NATO for refusing to impose one, warning that “all the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you.”

However, NATO has no intention for the risk of escalating the war across Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned over the weekend that his country would consider any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine as participation in the war there.  He said “Russia would view any move in this direction” as an intervention that “will pose a threat to our service members.” “That very second, we will view them as participants of the military conflict, and it would not matter what members they are,” the Russian president said.

Moreover, Wall Street Journal reported that ”Syrians may be sent to fight in Ukraine Russia recruiting Syrians who can fight in urban warfare to send them to Ukraine, WSJ has reported citing four US officials. The US officials did not specify the number of Syrian mercenaries were planned to be sent.”

Amidst the escalating war weighing the market sentiment, The recent news that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is exploring legislation that would ban Russian oil imports , further intensifies the sentiment.

Pelosi said last Thursday that she supports banning Russian oil imports to the US. Biden has been reluctant to curb Russian oil shipments to the US or slap on energy sanctions with prices already hitting the pockets of US citizens. However, the sanction has already been backed by wide numbers of Republicans and an increasing number of Democrats. A bill to ban oil and energy imports from Russia would terminate normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus and cancel Moscow’s access to the WTO.

The risk aversion market sentiment favors the gold. However, the upbeat Employment data of US favor the faster Fed rate hikes, in turn boosting the US dollar. US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) rose by 678K, more than the median forecast of a 413K figure and upwardly revised 481K prior during February. On the same line, the Unemployment Rate dropped to 3.8% versus 4.0% previous readings and 3.9% expected during the aforementioned month.

After the release, As per Reuters, Chicago Fed President and FOMC member Charles Evans mentioned, “The US central bank is on track to raising rates this year, though it may be ‘more than I think is essential to do so at every policy-setting meeting.”

XAU/USD 4 Hour Chart:

Support: 1942.8 (S1), 1915.5 (S2), 1901.6 (S3).

Resistance: 1984.1 (R1), 1998.0 (R2), 2025.3 (R3).

The escalating Russia-Ukraine tension favors the yellow metal; we expect a bullish trend for XAU/USD.