Gold prices rose sharply today, reaching a four-month high, and went to his largest weekly gain in the last 17 months (+ 4.5%). Investors sought safe "haven" of volatility after yesterday's unexpected decision to the Central Bank of Switzerland.

Recall SNB yesterday refused to support the objectives of the franc above 1.20 per euro, franc why in a short time rose by 30 percent. According to market participants, the central bank made this decision knowing about the intention of the European Central Bank to announce the beginning of buying up government bonds on January 22.

Meanwhile, today a member of the Board of the European Central Bank Benoit Ker said that to a possible program of quantitative easing, the ECB has worked, it has to be big. Ker also decided to repay poshedshie again talk of a Greek exit from the eurozone. "Any talk of a Greek exit from the eurozone unreasonable and unrealistic, - he said. - Its output is not discussed, and no one in Europe over this output does not work. So it is not discussed."

Precious metal more expensive despite the significant strengthening of the US dollar, which usually causes a backlash.

Had little impact as US data. Preliminary results presented Thomson-Reuters and the Institute of Michigan, showed that in January, US consumers are feeling more optimistic about the economy than last month.

According to published data, in January preliminary consumer sentiment index was 98.2 points compared with a final reading in December at the level of 93.6 points. It is worth noting that, according to the average expert estimates, the index should make 94.2 points. Also presented in the report the results of studies showed that the index of 5-year inflation expectations + 2.8% and the 12-month inflation expectations + 2.4%, preliminary expectations index 91.6, preliminary index of current conditions 108.3

It also became known that the stocks of the world's largest gold ETF-secured fund SPDR Gold Trust on Thursday rose 1.35 percent to 717.15 tons. At the same time, the demand for physical markets is reduced: the margin on the Shanghai Gold Exchange fell to $ 02.01 an ounce at $ 04.03 on Thursday.

The cost of the February gold futures on the COMEX today rose to 1273.50 dollars per ounce.