Gold, oil retreat; Bitcoin, cryptos surge with high volatility

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) – Gold and oil prices retreated on Friday after their rally on the previous session, while Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies surged to bounce back from losses on Thursday.

High volatility continues to dominate financial markets on the second day of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.

The price of gold fell to as low as $1,885 per ounce on Friday for almost a 1% loss, after closing the previous session at $1,903 an ounce.

Silver decreased to $23.92 per ounce during the day, a 1.15% decline, after it ended Thursday at $24.2.

Precious metals rallied on the previous session as investors turned to safe haven assets amid rising geopolitical risks.

The price of Brent crude oil surged 2.3% on Thursday to close at $99.08 per barrel, however, the international benchmark fell 5.4% to as low as $93.75 a barrel on Friday.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate ended the previous session at $92.81 per barrel. It lost 1.5% to see as low as $91.44 on Friday.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, were in recovery after plummeting on the previous day.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, dove to $34,350 on Thursday, but it was trading at $38,753 on Friday at 1510GMT for a 12.8% gain.

Ethereum, the biggest altcoin, slid below $2,303 on the previous day, but it soared 16.6% to $2,685 at that time.

The cryptocurrency market's total value stood at $1.74 trillion at the time, for an 8.3% daily increase, according to data by digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.