The gold price on Monday continues to hover near a two-week high as the amount of coronavirus continues to grow which is causing further concerns on the impact to the global economy.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China has now grown to more than 70,000 while the death toll is around 1,800.

The biggest fear about the virus now is it will continue to spread into other countries with the number of deaths outside the mainland China confirmed at five in the following countries, France, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

This fear about the virus spreading throughout the world is keeping gold well supported as a safehaven

“The coronavirus scenario is still unclear and the on-off headlines on the situation are making the stock markets volatile, forcing investors to take refuge in safe-haven gold,” said George Gero, managing director at RBC Wealth Management.

“Even with the virus gone, gold is expected to trade in the $1,550-$1,600 range as other uncertainties like lower interest rates across the major central banks, Middle East tensions and other political risks still exist.”

Gold is also breaking against a familiar trend in which it usually travels in the opposite direction of the US dollar but the precious metal seems to be bucking the trend at the moment which just goes to show how the virus is impacting investor decisions on where to put their money.

“The dollar normally works against the gold price, but the fact that gold did rise despite that goes to say that it (dollar) doesn’t have much impact on gold at the moment,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.