Safe-haven demand is strongest in countries hit hardest by the coronavirus
Senior refinery technician Vincente Sandoval puts a gold ‘button’ into a furnace to be further refined to form gold doré bars at Newmont Mining’s Carlin gold mine operation near Elko, Nevada, the US. File photo: REUTERS/RICK WILKING
Bengaluru — Gold briefly breached $1,800 an ounce on Wednesday for the first time since 2011 as mounting fears over the fast global spread of the coronavirus sent investors scurrying for safe havens. Spot gold had risen 0.3% to $1,799.22 an ounce by 8.54am GMT, after hitting its highest since November 2011, at $1,800.18, earlier in the session. US gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,812.90 an ounce. European shares opened lower as soaring Covid-19 cases dented hopes of a swift economic recovery.
“Investors are hedging their exposure to riskier assets simply because there’s a growing and widening belief that any recovery is unlikely to be V-shaped,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK. “Markets generally tend to operate through a prism of optimism and that optimism is being tested at the moment and gold is benefiting from that.”
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