Gold prices jumped today as investors sought safe haven assets in the immediate wake of a two separate terrorist attacks in Brussels. The first hit Brussels Airport with two explosions heard in the departure lounge. The second occurred on the city’s public transport system leaving 16 dead in addition to 10 confirmed dead at the airport.

Gold advanced by a shade under 1% to $1253.40 having earlier gained after the release of poor US housing data which showed that sales of existing homes in the US fell by a much-worse-than-expected 7.1% in February.

The number compared with forecasts for a 2.8% decline and saw investors ignore earlier comments from Federal Reserve officials who had suggested that US interest rates could be raised as soon as next month.

Gold has rallied by as much as 18% in 2016, confounding predictions for a sub-$1,000 handle this year by investors who took the Fed’s premature timeline for interest rate hikes at face value.

“There will inevitably be profit-taking in gold because it’s had a fairly impressive run-up this year but the fundamentals are very supportive of the metal at the moment,” said Erik Larsson, chief market strategist at Nihon International.

“The Fed has signaled that it only expects to raise twice this year and even that is beginning to look somewhat optimistic so, barring a sudden miraculous reversal in fortunes for the US economy, Nihon International expects gold to keep advancing in 2016 and we’re advising clients to buy on pullbacks and bouts of profit-taking.”

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