Gold Updates & Russia-Ukraine Tensions - Weekly News Update

Introduction

A warm welcome to all our new viewers and subscribers. We do apologise for the lack of recent content and news. Our team has been preparing a new project recently that will benefit all our viewers and subscribers. Please stay tune and follow us on social media for more updates.

Today's topic provides an overview on the Gold market and a brief insight to the tensions between Russia & Ukraine.

Gold

Gold prices rose slightly higher r compared to Tuesday (25th January 2022). Investors look towards interest rate cues from the US Federal Reserve meeting.
The Federal Reserve meeting will span two days beginning Tuesday (25th January 2022). The market speculates that the central bank will implement a 25 basis points hike in the (IR) interest rates starting in March.
Spot Gold was at $1,847/ounce compared to $1841/ounce (Tuesday morning)
The implications of a rising interest rate will see investors fleeing to other interest-bearing assets apart from gold.
Gold rose slightly today due to the tensions of awaiting the results from the Fed meeting. The market has gone towards traditional risk-safety assets as a result.

Russia-Ukraine Tensions

Understanding the conflict

Why did a conflict arise? Pre 1991, Ukraine was part of Russia. Ukraine gained independence in 1991 and began to shed its Russian legacy while developing a close relationship with the West. In 2014, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had rejected an association agreement with the EU to create closer ties with Moscow. The rejection resulted in mass protests that forced the president out of his position.
Russia, in protest, supported a separatist rebellion that saw conflict break out in East Ukraine. As many as 14,000 people have died in the war of Russia-Ukraine.

Will there be a full-blown war?

The West is accusing Russia of positioning 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border to prepare for an attack. However, Russia has denied any claims that they are planning to invade Ukraine at the current movement. Russia claims that the West is aggravating the current situation by providing support to Ukraine in troops and weapons.
Analysts at Aljazeera believe that it is uncertain whether a war will break out between the two countries. Other analysts monitoring the situation believe that Russia may be swift in occupying Ukraine to increase its bargaining power in future discussions regarding NATO's expansion.