Gold and silver are stagnating on Tuesday after making some decent gains only a day before. As it stands, gold is hovering above the $1,340 threshold while silver is trading down and is just above $22/ounce. There is a healthy amount of economic data due to be released this week, most notably the consumer confidence index being published today.

There is a boatload of civil unrest going on throughout the world, all of which is fueling safe-haven demand and prompting investors to rid themselves of inherently risky investments. As we move further into February and thus 2014, it comes time for us to analyze the long-term viability of gold and silver’s most recent rally.

Yanukovych Ousted, Civil Unrest Continues

Ukrainians have been taking to the streets in protest since this past November when their former president made the decision to cut ties with the EU in exchange for a multi-billion dollar bailout from Russia. Though protests have been a mainstay in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev for more than 4 months, there were very limited bouts of violence up until last week. Since last Monday, over 100 people have fallen victim to the violence and hundreds more have been injured. Scenes reported from worldwide media outlets made Kiev look more like a warzone than it was a stage for civil protest. Since last week, Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovych has fled his presidential palace and is on the run from an arrest warrant issued in his name by the Ukrainian government. Though it is unclear how the situation in Ukraine will be brought to an end, what is for certain is that this civil unrest is driving safe-haven demand for precious metals.

Ukraine isn’t the only nation dealing with unrest either, as Thailand is seeing much of the same violence take place in their streets too. Political rivals have been attacking each other for the past few weeks and the situation is quickly deteriorating as more civilians are being caught in the crossfire. We will continue to keep eyes on these situations in hopes of finding out everything about the latest developments.

Though gold and silver have been trading up for the past few weeks, investors are more and more concerned with the long-term viability of this most recent run. Should risk-aversion continue to become more intense, one can only assume that demand for safe-haven gold and silver will remain on the rise.