Commodities, Safe Havens Soar, Stocks Drop on Ukraine Invasion

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 5 a.m. EST 3.3 percent higher than 24 hours earlier. The silver spot price even increased by 5.4 percent. Platinum and Palladium also rallied, gaining 3.7 percent and 10.8 percent, 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 percent of the world's platinum and more than 45 percent of the world's palladium production.

Demand for U.S. treasuries also increased. 10-year bond yields were down around 5 percent 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 percent as of 5 a.m. Thursday. European stock markets were also in a rut, the British FTSE 100 losing 3.1 percent, while the German Dax was down by 5.2 percent.

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