London — Gold rose for a fourth day on Wednesday as the concern over escalating tension in Syria, US sanctions on Russia and the US-China trade stand-off weighed on stock markets and helped knock the dollar index to a two-week low. The metal reached its strongest in a week as appetite for nominally lower-risk assets sharpened. Palladium, which has also benefited from the fear that sanctions on Russia could hurt supply, rose further after climbing nearly 6% in the last two days. Spot gold was up 0.5% at $1,345.80/oz by 9.57am GMT, while US gold futures were 0.2% higher at $1,349.10/oz. "We’ve seen fears of a trade war and now more recently the Russian sanctions," Capital Economics analyst Simona Gambarini said. "Uncertainty, volatility and geopolitical risk have been rising steadily since the start of the year." That has sparked good demand for gold through products such as bullion-backed exchange-traded funds, she said. "Gold is benefiting from the risk-off sentiment, and because pe...
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