Gold closes at $888

Gold prices briefly jumped above $920 an ounce Friday as a stalled plan to bail out the U.S. financial system unnerved investors and prompted a flight into safe-haven assets. Silver also rose. Elsewhere, crude oil turned slightly lower and agriculture futures also fell. Gold for December delivery rose as high as $920.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange before easing back to settle at $888.50, up $6.50. Other precious metals traded mixed. December silver rose 22.8 cents to settle at $13.503 an ounce, while December copper fell 6 cents to settle at $3.0745 a pound. Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell $1.13 to settle at $106.89 on the Nymex, after earlier dipping as low as $104.25. Crude rose $2.29 to settle at $108.02 on Thursday.