Gold Rises to $1,366.90 an Ounce on China Data, Ukraine Crisis

This morning, gold rose 1.3 percent, or $17.77, to $1,366.90 an ounce, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, US gold futures rose 1.4 percent, or $19.12, to $1,365.90.

The gains came as investors sought a safe haven due to worries about corporate defaults in China and the geopolitical tension between Russia, Ukraine and the western world.

“The increase in Asian physical gold demand over the past 10 years has been largely due to the huge rise in wealth in that region, so you would think anything that disrupts growth would negatively affect gold demand,” Macquarie Securities Group analyst Matthew Turner told the news outlet. “However, until we see that an element of Western safe-haven buying because of the knock-on effect it is having on equities and currencies seems to be the dominant driver.”