Gold futures mark highest settlement in nearly a week

Gold futures rallied on Wednesday to settle at their highest in almost a week. The U.S. Federal Reserve has "marked out a series of planned interest rate rises throughout the year, so gold is likely to face an increasingly less favourable macroeconomic environment," said Rupert Rowling, market analyst at Kinesis Money. "Yet the one factor that could trump all this is further escalation in the war in Ukraine." April gold climbed by $15.80, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,937.30 an ounce. That was the highest most-active contract finish since March 17, FactSet data show.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.