Gold has been lingering around the $1,335 per ounce for the past several weeks. This prompted many hedge funds to sell their holdings.

Then came the turmoil in the Mideast. First Tunisia and Egypt, now Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and others. That was the catalyst that gold needed. It shot to a new record high of $1,432.10 in the spot market. April gold futures settled at $1,431.20 per ounce, as reported in Reuters.

Not long ago, there was much talk that the silver rally was over. But it looks like it was just a correction. Of course, silver recently hit a 30-year high, with the price moving over $34 an ounce.

A big part of the spike has been the result of a surge in investment demand, especially from hedge funds. Their positions reached the highest levels in four months (this is according to the net-long position on the COMEX).

"Gold rises with inflation and in times of crisis, like we have today; and, as a result, many countries are buying gold," says Mary Anne and Pamela Aden.

The long-standing resource sector expert and co-editors of The Aden Forecast explain, "They know it's the ultimate currency and gold is again taking its place in the global monetary system, as it has for thousands of years.

"The actions of the world's central banks tell the story. At the very least, this is going to keep upward pressure on gold in the years ahead.

Back in the late 1970s, the Hunt brothers from Texas tried to corner the silver market. That drove prices to $48 an ounce. Now, 31 years later, silver is shooting higher again. The March silver futures contract closed at $32.296 per ounce, up 72 cents.

Since gold is expensive, investors are turning to silver to hedge against inflation. Many fear that the Federal Reserve will not be able to control the spike in commodity prices. The Fed is buying $600 billion of treasuries and keeping interest rates near zero.

As investors, we are always looking for guidance. For those of you invested in gold, this survey bears reading. Reuters polled 65 analysts to find out what their crystal balls are saying about the price of gold in 2011 and 2012.

For this year, they are looking for a median price of $1,450 per ounce, 18% higher than 2010's median price of $1,225.60 per ounce. The forecast is just above the record of $1,430.95 set in 2010. A breakdown by quarters is as follows:

After a torrid year, the commodities markets showed some weakness is January. For example, gold fell by about 6%.

So is this a correction or finally a bear market?

Well, legendary investor, Jim Rogers, still thinks that commodities are the best place for your investment dollars (according to an interview on CNBC). No doubt, he has lots of credibility. When others snickered, Rogers started to invest in commodities in the late 1990s. He even wrote a book on the topic.

With the surge in copper prices -- and other industrial and precious metals -- it was no surprise that Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) had a great quarter. Net income rose 60% to $1.55 billion or $3.25 per share. Excluding a $0.01 charge, the earnings handily beat the consensus of $3.03. As for the top line, revenues increased 22% to $5.6 billion. The Street estimate was for $5.47 billion.

Despite all this, the stock was off nearly 6% early Thursday. No doubt, one reason is that it has had a strong run over the past few months and the valuation was getting overextended.

Gold prices have marched to a new high of $1,422.45 per troy ounce in London. This marks the fourth day of the gold rally.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) cited that the prime mover was continued worry over European sovereign debt defaults.Traders and investors are riding the bull higher and higher. To help the gold along, the U.S. dollar is weaker, sparking a rally in key commodities like oil and grains. Cotton is also up again.

First off we should distinguish between precious metals and base metals. Copper and zinc fall in the category of base metals. Base metals are used in construction and products. So copper and zinc are more a supply-and-demand play than precious metals. The prices of base metals move almost in lock-step to basic supply.

Goldman Sachs Group (GS) has an international division that specializes in commodities. Much of the data comes from London, which is a hub for commodities trading. The London Metals Exchange (LME) is where this trading takes place. Traders like Goldman can monitor trading and inventories at the LME and run estimates of supply and demand based on trading activity, both on and off exchanges.

Precious metals moved higher today, led by gold, which set another record high. Here are the numbers:

• December gold futures are trading at $1,328.20, per ounce, up $11.40 (as of 8:00 am EDT)
• December silver is up 23 cents to $22.27 per ounce.
• October platinum is trading at $1,681.7 per ounce, up $14.
• December Palladium is up $7.20 to $568.50 per ounce.

The market's investment-obsession-of-the-moment? Oh, one could pick several, but gold certainly has to be up there.

If you're a gold expert, by all means, invest or trade away. But the view from here argues: if you're not, stand aside.

There's a phrase in trading circles called "dumb money, and dumber money." It refers to novices who enter a given market (or trade) too late, often at the point of a bubble, and others who enter slightly after that. Typically, both trades end badly. On Wednesday gold closed up $2 to $1,310.30 per ounce. It hit a record $1,314.80 earlier in the day.