Gold Briefly Crosses $500 Mark

The price of an ounce of gold rose above $500 twice this week during overnight trading before falling to $499.40 this morning. The last time gold crossed the $500 mark was on December 14, 1987. Though the price of gold is steadily rising, it is still far from the January 1980 record of $873 an ounce.

December gold, a futures contract, climbed to $502.30 an ounce in Monday's overnight session. The contract rose 80 cents to $499.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) Tuesday.

Some commodity analysts expect to see the price of gold continue to rise and to cross the $500 mark for a more extended period.

Gold is not the only metal on the move. On Monday, the price of January platinum crossed the $1,000 mark for the first time since March 1980. The price settled at $1,003.20 an ounce this morning, down from an overnight high of $1,007.

Also on Nymex, December silver fell back 5.7 cents to $8.296 an ounce, on the heels of closing Monday at its highest level in more than a year. December palladium ended up 70 cents at $263.40 an ounce.

Copper futures also climbed, with the December contract rising 2.45 cents to $2.0405 a pound after trading at $2.048 during the day. Analysts point to increased Chinese copper buying as the driver behind the price rise. According to MarketWatch, China is being forced to buy massive quantities of the industrial metal to cover a short position taken by a "rogue" copper dealer.