Gold bid, stocks dumped further

Russia's invasion of Ukraine saw investors scrambling for the safety of gold and the protection of inflation hedges as weeks of brinkmanship came to a head on Thursday.

While market participants had been bracing for some form of aggression on Russia's part, Thursday's attack that brought explosions even in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, and across the country, made the war real for market participants.

Trader playbooks seemed to change from one that was built around the possibility of a diplomatic resolution to the crisis, to what had at one point been a tail-risk, or extreme, scenario.

"It looks pretty clear that they are moving toward Kyiv, which was always one of the worst case scenarios, because we now have a long night ahead of us trying to understand how bad this gets, and what sanctions get put up," said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne.

"There are no buyers here for risk, and there are a lot of sellers out there, so this market is getting hit very hard."

Gold prices jumped to their highest in more than a year as stock markets and futures on their indexes fell. Oil prices surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since September 2014.

Nasdaq futures fell sharply, and suggested the US tech-heavy index was on track to confirm being in a bear market - down 20 per cent from its recent high.

"Whether there will be a full-blown war or not, the simple strategy is to bet on a spike in inflation," said Yuan Yuwei, a Chinese hedge fund manager at Water Wisdom Asset Management.