Spot gold rose 1.5% to $1,997.91and briefly scaled the $2,000 mark, an all-time high since Aug. 19, 2020. U.S. gold futures rose about 1.77% to $2,001.40.

"Gold will likely find some heavy traffic around the $2,000 level initially, but once it is cleared, assuming no change in the Ukraine situation, it will quickly move to the $2,100 region and on to new all-time highs," said OANDA senior analyst Jeffrey Halley.

Palladium dropped 0.23% to $2,995.39 per ounce around 4 p.m. ET after hitting an all-time high of more than $3,440 earlier in the day.

Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, rose to their highest since mid-March 2021 on Friday.

Spot gold may keep rising towards $2,065 per ounce, according to Reuters' technical analyst Wang Tao.

Russia accounts for 40% of global production of the auto-catalyst metal, used by automakers in catalytic converters to curb emissions.