NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) --

Gold prices

hit a new record Friday and

silver prices

touched $40 an ounce as the precious metal bulls came out in full force.

Gold for June delivery added $14.80 to $1,474.10 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price hit another intra-day high of $1,476.20 an ounce. The spot gold price was jumping more than $12, according to Kitco's gold index.

Silver prices surged $1.05 to close at $40.60 an ounce

, after hitting a 31-year high of $40.63 an ounce.

"Silver over 40 dollars now and gold over 1475 are in new technical territory," says George Gero, senior vice president at RBC Capital Markets.

"These levels

for silver are going to be a spring board to $50," says Anthony Neglia of Tower Trading, "maybe sooner than I think." Neglia sees $37 as the new support area for silver whereas a few weeks ago it was $30.50. "My buy recommendation

is the July 50/55 call spread which is up 50% in a week."

As silver looks to $50, gold is looking to $1,500, which seemed like a far-fetched dream for a few weeks as the metal could not conquer the $1,450 level. Now it has and many experts think the $1,500 level will be reached in days or, at the most, weeks.

When will gold hit $1,500 "is a good question," says Will Rhind, head of U.S. operations for ETF Securities, "I think that right now with the market the way it is, who knows, it could be a matter of days."

Pat Heller, general manager at Liberty Coin Service, has noted that "the 'general public' is coming to the realization that the U.S. dollar is falling in value and contributing to noticeably higher consumer prices," which is making hard assets very appealing as a whole new portion of the population gets interested. "I think the price increases over the past two weeks are partly a reaction to this."

Safe-haven demand is leading the charge Friday as investors are ready to protect themselves during a possible government shutdown. Japan's 7.1-magnitude earthquake Thursday also left investors with the notion that anything can happen, so gold and silver become appealing to hold over the weekend.

Portugal's formal request for a bailout as well as the European Central Bank's tacit statement that Thursday's rate hike was not the first of many have highlighted gold and silver as an attractive alternative to paper currencies.

"

The ECB can't be too aggressive on

rates," says Rhind, "the economy is still fragile. We have problems in Portugal, problems in Greece, problems in Spain, problems in Ireland, so aggressively raising rates is potentially destabilizing to any potential recovery. They are going to be cautious."

Oil prices also popped past $112 a barrel Friday with $120 the next price target for many experts. Gold and silver have been moving in tandem with oil prices as higher energy costs lead to higher inflation which leads to more demand for gold and silver.

A weak U.S. dollar was helping gold and silver Friday. The fact that the U.S. government is still unable to reach a 2011 budget agreement and that a government shutdown looms at midnight showcases to the world the U.S. can't get its fiscal house in order. Also, the fact that budget cuts might not be steep enough puts into question the long-term strength of the U.S. currency.

If the government can put a budget together, pressure might come off the dollar and gold and silver might hit some resistance. Traders also typically take profits after big runs in gold and silver, as they saw this week, which might plague the markets Monday.

Gold mining stocks

, a risky but profitable way to

buy gold

, were popping.

Kinross Gold

(KGC) - Get Report

was adding 1.88% to $16.66 while

Goldcorp

(GG)

was up 1.86% to $54.18.

Other gold stocks,

New Gold

(NGD) - Get Report

and

Gold Fields

(GFI) - Get Report

were trading at $11.59 and $18.57, respectively.

--

Written by Alix Steel in

New York.

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