Gold increases more than 1%

Gold price rose on increasing demand for safe-haven assets.

Market participants speculate that the Fed will not raise its interest rate in March. They are focussed on the incoming U.S. economic data. The Conference Board released its consumer confidence index for the U.S. on Tuesday. The index dropped to 92.2 in February from 97.8 in January, missing expectations for a fall to 97.0. The present conditions index dropped to 112.1 in February from 116.6 in January. The Conference Board's consumer expectations index for the next six months decreased to 78.9 in February from 85.3 in January. The percentage of consumers expecting more jobs in the coming months was down to 22.1% in February from 23.0% in January.

The National Association of Realtors released existing homes sales figures in the U.S. on Tuesday. Sales of existing homes rose 0.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.47 million in January from 5.45 in December. Analysts had expected a decrease to 5.32 million units.

"The housing market has shown promising resilience in recent months, but home prices are still rising too fast because of ongoing supply constraints. Despite the global economic slowdown, the housing sector continues to recover and will likely help the U.S. economy avoid a recession," the NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.

March futures for gold on the COMEX today rose to 1226.40 dollars per ounce.