NEW YORK (TheStreet ) -- Gold prices were holding on to record highs Thursday despite battling with a stronger U.S. dollar and profit-taking.
Gold for December delivery was adding $1.2 to $1,293.30 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price Thursday has traded as high as $1,295.10 and as low as $1,288.20.
The U.S. dollar index was rallying 0.05% to $79.88 while the euro was losing 0.28% to $1.33 vs. the dollar. The spot gold price Thursday was relatively flat, according to Kitco's gold index.
Gold prices were seeing some mild profit-taking after reaching a new intraday high Wednesday of $1,298 an ounce, but a jump in weekly initial jobless claims to 465,000 is helping support prices.
Experts predict that gold will break $1,300 relatively soon as the gold buying frenzy is backed up by global currency worries.
The Bank of Japan's recent intervention in the currency market to help the yen drop in value wasn't enough and rumors are that the central bank will have to intervene again to force the yen lower.
The news coupled with the growing consensus of another round of monetary easing from the Federal Reserve in the near future just highlights the fragility of paper currencies and makes gold all the more appealing as a safer form of money.
The dollar was rebounding slightly Thursday on the back of a weaker euro. The euro was struggling after September's eurozone manufacturing purchasing managers index came in weaker than expected at 53.60 led by a disappointing number out of Germany.
A stronger dollar makes gold, which is priced in the currency, more expensive to buy elsewhere. But for the long-term most analysts expect the U.S. currency to struggle.
"The ... weaker dollar ... will continue to provide background support," says James Moore, analyst at thebulliondesk.com in his daily metals report.
At the Denver Gold Forum this week, the CEOs of the major silver and gold mining companies all think the gold price will head higher with targets anywhere from $1,500-$2,500 in the next three to five years, but some warned that a correction might hit the market in the short-term.
"I think we have many years left in this cycle," says Bradford Cooke, CEO of Endeavour Silver(EXK), "[but] it's time for a pullback. We're way over-do for a summer correction ... and I think that pullback is starting right away."
