The following chart provides a update on the current 24h spot price of gold. Chart and commentary to follow ~

Courtesy of MarketWatch:

Gold for February delivery rose $24.40, or nearly 3%, at $907.50 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"Gold prices are higher on the back of firmer oil price and bargain hunting after the sell-off this week," said analysts at Action Economics. "Bullion was hit by investors selling gold to cover losses from the sale of equities, but with stock markets rebounding gold prices are firming again."

On Wednesday, gold futures dropped $7.20 to end at $883.10 in a very volatile trading session.

"Given the turmoil across the financial markets, it's not surprising to see the precious metals remain extremely volatile as some investors cash in their positions to generate cash while others will look favorably upon gold as a safe-haven asset," said James Moore, a metals analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, in a research note.

He pegged technical support at $876 to $868 while resistance is expected at $890 to $900.

On the currency markets, the dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against six other major currencies, dropped 0.6% at 75.915. Dollar weakness typically boosts gold prices.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks started mildly higher on the heels of the prior day's late-session jump, with the equities market bolstered by a decline in weekly jobless claims and positive earnings from AT&T Inc., Nokia Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

Also on Nymex, other metals prices rose sharply. March silver soared 36 cents, or over 2%, at $16.330 an ounce and March copper rose 11.30 cents, or nearly 4%, to $3.1850 an ounce.

Crude-oil futures rose 1%, boosted by prospects for a resumption of the rebound on Wall Street, as traders awaited weekly data on U.S. petroleum inventories.