Palladium, gold climb as West cranks up sanctions on Russia

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Palladium jumped about 6% on Monday as

fresh Western sanctions on Russia raised supply concerns for the

auto-catalyst, while gold rose more than 1% after President

Vladimir Putin put Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert.

Palladium jumped 5.8% to $2,503.41 by 0605 GMT, after

having scaled its highest since July 2021 at $2,711.18 last

week, and was set for a third consecutive monthly rise.

The United States and its allies on Saturday moved to block

certain Russian banks’ access to the SWIFT international payment

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system, which traders and analysts said could disrupt Russian

exports of all commodities from oil and metals to grains.

“There’s just real concern here that shipping channels are

just going to get disrupted because of this Ukraine situation,”

said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

“It’s not necessarily the short-run spike that really weighs

negatively but more of the how long this is going to last.”

Russia’s Nornickel is the world’s largest supplier

of palladium, used by automakers for catalytic converters.

Spot gold climbed 1.1% to $1,909.16 per ounce, rising

about 6% so far this month in what would be its best monthly

gain since May 2021. US gold futures advanced 1.1% to

$1,909.00.

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“Gold is bid on the increasingly strident outpourings from

Moscow and concerns that Russian interference won’t be confined

to Ukraine,” said Nicholas Frappell, a global general manager at

ABC Bullion.

Gold is often used as a hedge against inflation and as a

means of preserving wealth during times of financial and

political uncertainty.

Goldman Sachs expects a rise in the prices of commodities

that Russia is a major producer of and lifted its short-term

Brent crude forecast as the West stepped up political and

economic sanctions on Moscow.

Spot silver rose 0.6% to $24.34 per ounce and

platinum climbed 0.5% to $1,059.26, with both poised for

monthly gains.

(Reporting by Asha Sistla in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu

Sahu)