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01/10/2006:

"Gold hits new 25-year peak at $550 per ounce"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gold rallied to hit a new 25-year peak on Monday as fund managers shifted more money into the metal on bullishness for 2006 and uncertainty about economic growth and the dollar, analysts said.

Trading was volatile in Europe, with some speculative profit-taking emerging earlier, but a late flurry of fund buying in New York pushed bullion to a new high to reach above $550 an ounce for the first time since January 1981.

Spot gold was last quoted at $548.50/549.25, compared with its intraday peak at $550.75 touched late in New York and against Friday's late quote of $538.30/9.00.

The day's rally in gold -- an asset seen as an alternative to more common investments -- was unusual in that it coincided with the Dow Jones industrial average's first rise above 11,000 in 4-1/2 years, and with a firmer dollar in the afternoon.
news.yahoo.com