Another jump for gold prices

The price of gold hit another record high in New York on Thursday as it soared to $897.30 per troy ounce, before falling back to $893.60 per troy ounce just after the close of floor trade on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, still a gain of $11.90 over Wednesday’s close.

The new record high came after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said that he is prepared to cut interest rates again to avoid a recession, remarks which weakened the dollar in currencies trade.

Even with these new highs, however, the price of gold remains substantially under its 1980 record of $875 per troy ounce when adjusted for inflation; to surpass that record it would have to rise to around $2,200 per troy ounce.

Other precious metals prices were also higher, with March silver adding 44 cents to $16.28 per troy ounce just before the close.

April platinum traded up $5.40 to $1,563.70 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, March copper was even at $3.28 per pound in New York in early afternoon trade after UBS dropped its forecast for prices in 2008, predicting that copper will average $3 per pound this year, an 8 percent decline from its earlier forecasts.

UBS also lowered its prediction for the price of zinc by 23 percent and by 11 percent for aluminium.

The UBS forecast for lead prices also dropped by 11 percent.