Gold resumed its rise on Monday to trade near its highest level in three weeks as the escalating geopolitical tension in Ukraine enhanced safety demand on bullion.
Ukraine gave a Monday-morning deadline for separatists, otherwise it warned of using the armed forces, which raised concerns of a military action with Russia.
The United States, on the other hand, said it would toughen sanctions on Moscow if pro-Russian military work continued in Eastern Ukraine. This time, the sanction will reach Russian business sectors such as mining, banking and energy.
Last week, the shiny metal locked a 1.21 percent gain after the Fed had eased concerns about the timing of future rate hikes.
While markets became sure the Fed would continue their bond purchases withdrawal at the same pace of $10 billion a month, the timing of raising the borrowing cost is not clear yet.
Fed minutes released did not include discussion about holding interest rates near its record low for a considerable time.
Many policymakers highlighted that expectations of raising interest rates might be overstated.
Fed Chairman Janet Yellen said on March 19, she hinted to the possibility of raising interest rates in six months after the end of bond purchases withdrawal, but she referred last week the U.S. economy will need to hold stimulus for “some time.”
As of 12:30 GMT, the U.S. will release retail sales figures for March with expectations are in favor of seeing 0.9 percent advance from the prior 0.3 percent gain recorded in February.
Meanwhile, gold is trading around $1325.60 an ounce after hitting a high of $1329.63 and a low of $1319.18.
The U.S. dollar ticked up versus a basket of major currencies to hover around 79.66, after hitting a peak of 79.73, according to the dollar index.
Crude Oil for May’s delivery rose to trade around $104.38 a barrel after touching a high of $104.53.