Gold fell off about $4 late yesterday in New York Access trade and early Asian trade, but it then rallied back to near unchanged in late Asian and early London trade before rising throughout the rest of trade in London and New York to surpass the $500 high made in December 1987 and rise to its highest since February 1983 and make a new 22 and ¾ year high with a 1.52% gain to $502.30.  Should gold pass through the $510 level, it will be trading at the highest since April 1981.  Silver followed a very similar pattern and ended near its highs with a 2.9% gain to make a new 18 year high at $8.51.

Platinum gained $18 to $987 to get back near 25 year highs, palladium gained $3 to $260 to get back near 19 month highs, and copper made new all-time highs above $2 per pound.

Gold and silver equities rose throughout morning trade and remained near their highs in afternoon trade to close with nice gains.  All three indices closed about 1% away from their recent 8 and ½ year (XAU) and all-time (HUI and GDM) highs.

More Precious Metals Analysis:

“The precious metals all rose in sync on Thursday and the markets managed the sharp rise despite a sharp rise in the Dollar. We suspect that a massive concentrated run up in copper prices inspired precious metals players and we also think that a soaring US equity market helped the buyers justify their actions. With a strong growing economy and rising oil prices we suspect that a few players upgraded their inflation expectations and that probably brought in another wave of buyers.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

The U.S. dollar index rose as the ECB was not especially hawkish in their interest rate outlook.  The European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates for the first time in 5 years, but ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet made a point to say that this in not, necessarily, the start of a sustained, “measured,” pace of interest rate hikes as the U.S. Fed has done.  The ECB raised rates ¼ point to 2.25% and will remain “accommodative” in the future.  The yen made new 27 month lows.

Oil initially gained up near $58 Thursday morning before falling off to near unchanged by the afternoon, but it then rallied back to new session highs at the close as traders debated a winter storm approaching the Northeast U.S. and natural gas inventories that fell 49 billion cubic feet which was about as expected.

Treasuries initially gained on easing inflation fears, but they then fell off in later trade in anticipation of tomorrow’s jobs report.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose sharply on tame inflation figures, with all three indices rising throughout trade and ending near their highs with about 1% gains.

Among the big names making news in the market today were various auto makers, Delta, Federated, various retailers, Knight Ridder, Intel, Wal-Mart, Warner Music, Lockheed, and JPMorgan.

Gold & Silver Stock News Update from GoldReview.com:

Venezuela’s mining review, Crystallex’s draw down notice to Azimuth Opportunity, Rio Narcea’s management change, and Gold Fields’ executed definitive agreement with Bolivar Gold were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

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- Written by Chris Mullen

Winners & Losers tracks NYSE and AMEX listed stocks that trade over $1.

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