Spot gold and silver are hovering around even but are still feeling some light selling pressure. This week is expected to be a quiet one from an economic standpoint, but there will be plenty of geopolitical matters for investors to mull over, the most notable of which is the crisis in Ukraine. Violence between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian military is continuing to carry on and is further threatening the stability of Eastern Europe. Despite the ongoing violence in Ukraine helping boost safe-haven demand for precious metals, gold and silver are having a hard time receiving any help from anywhere else.

Europe Continues To Capture Market’s Attention

On this second day of the week the market is still continuing to focus on the crisis in Ukraine. A referendum vote took place on Sunday to decide the fate of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, a vote that has reportedly gone in the favor of Donetsk claiming itself independent. Many of those that support an independent Donetsk want to subsequently see their region adopted as the newest facet of the Russian Federation. Despite the vote being overwhelmingly in favor of Donetsk becoming independent, many reports are claiming that the most recent referendum was far from legitimate.

As it stands, the Ukrainian government is refusing to acknowledge the referendum vote and will continue to fight the pro-Russian rebels who maintain a strong foothold throughout much of eastern and southern Ukraine. Safe-haven demand for precious metals has been given a boost by this most recent bout of violence, but the increased physical buying of gold and silver has done more in the way of preventing major losses from occurring than anything else. The crisis in Ukraine is still far from resolved which means it will more than likely remain in the news and on the minds of investors for the foreseeable future.

In other news from Europe, the German ZEW economic expectations index was released today and came back far worse than what the market was expecting. The weak economic report only adds credence to the belief that the European Central Bank will need to implement some sort of monetary stimulus in the near future in order to fight off growing deflation concerns. Today’s report put some pressure on the euro currency which, in turn, prompted the US Dollar to make gains. Despite safe-haven demand helping precious metals as of late, today’s more valuable US Dollar prevented metals from accumulating any gains.