Gold prices rose more than 1%, yesterday, to move towards achieving its biggest weekly gains since October 2011, due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus around the world, which affects the growth opportunities and pushes investors towards safe haven assets.
The spot price of gold was up 0.7% to $ 1681.67 an ounce, after rising to $ 1689.65. Prices are about 6% higher over the past week. US gold futures increased 0.9% to $ 1682.8.
"The usual influx of high-risk assets into safe havens is fueling the rise of gold, due to concerns about the economic consequences of the virus," said Peter Verteig, an analyst at the "Quantity Commodity Research".
Palladium fell 3.1% in spot transactions to $ 2454.22 an ounce. The metal used in car exhaust systems hit an all-time high of $ 2875.5 in late February.
Silver fell 0.2% to $ 17.38, while platinum settled at $ 864.
Moreover, Bank of America said: Investors have exited most of the asset classes, as equity and bond funds saw a total displacement of 36 billion dollars in total over the week ending last Wednesday, amid fears of economic damage caused by the Corona virus.
Stock markets have been in a wave of selling since mid-February, leaving the market losing about $ 6.5 trillion of its value, as the number of cases of coronavirus increases at a greater rate.
Analysts at Bank of America, who are working on weekly data from the EFPR to monitor the flows, said that $ 23.3 billion was withdrawn from stock markets, and $ 12.6 billion left the bond markets, the highest rate since December. 2018.
The data also showed that risk averse investors withdrew $ 5.3 billion from emerging market stocks, the highest level in 30 weeks.
The influx of risky assets into safe havens fueling the rise of gold.