Commodities, safe havens soar, stocks drop

Safe havens rallied and commodity benchmarks soared upon the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which despite large Russian troop build-ups and threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin constituted a worse-case scenario for international observers.

Precious metals were in demand, with the gold spot price at 3.3% higher than 24 hours earlier. The silver spot price even increased by 5.4%. Platinum and Palladium also rallied, gaining 3.7% and 10.8%, respectively. The two latter precious metals are not only considered risk-averse investments, but are also major trade goods of Russia, whose exports are equal to around 15% of the world’s platinum and more than 45% of the world’s palladium production. Demand for U.S. treasuries also increased. 10-year bond yields were down around 5% as of Thursday morning, denoting that the price of the notes had gone up. Bitcoin did not prove a safe-haven investment as it had dropped around 6.1% as of 5 a.m. Thursday. European stock markets were also in a rut, the British FTSE 100 losing 3.1%, while the German Dax was down by 5.2%.

The Brent oil price benchmark broke the $100 barrier as expected, rising another 8.2% after a rally that has lasted several days. U.S. benchmark WTI crude is following suit, also approaching $100 Thursday early morning. Natural gas traded in the U.S. gained in value even more. (Statista)