Palladium, gold prices climb as West cranks up sanctions on Russia

By Asha Sistla

(Reuters) - 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 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. U.S. gold futures advanced 1.1% to $1,909.00.

"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)