Of course, the price of gold has been making new all-time highs in other currencies for months now, but, today it was the yellow metal’s turn against the U.S. dollar and this afternoon’s close at $1,232.50 an ounce eclipsed last December’s record of $1,227.50 an ounce for the near-month futures contract.

Safe haven buying in Europe and elsewhere was the proximate cause for the big surge and, now that the old high has been taken out, there is no technical resistance in the upward direction making for an interesting period ahead for gold investors.

This story has the potential to turn into something quite significant as it has long been believed that JP Morgan has depressed the price of silver through massive short positions that grew even larger after the early-2008 Bear Stearns acquisition.

Feds probing JPMorgan trades in silver pit

Federal agents have launched parallel criminal and civil probes of JPMorgan Chase and its trading activity in the precious metals market, The Post has learned.

The probes are centering on whether or not JPMorgan, a top derivatives holder in precious metals, acted improperly to depress the price of silver, sources said.

The Commodities Futures Trade Commission is looking into civil charges, and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is handling the criminal probe, according to sources, who did not wish to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the information.

The probes are far-ranging, with federal officials looking into JPMorgan’s precious metals trades on the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) exchange, which is a physical delivery market, and the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) for future paper derivative trades.

JPMorgan increased its silver derivative holdings by $6.76 billion, or about 220 million ounces, during the last three months of 2009, according to the Office of Comptroller of the Currency.

Recall that, in the recent CFTC hearings on metals markets and the somewhat ugly aftermath in the gold and silver community related to the inner workings of futures markets, this was the one major issue that remained – that JP Morgan basically controls the silver price.

It’s another one of those weird, late-2008 type of days for financial markets as the dollar, treasuries, and gold bullion are about the only things going up. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that, yesterday, the inventory at the popular SPDR Gold Shares ETF (NYSE:GLD) reached a new all-time high as indicated below.

After leveling off in recent weeks at about five or six tonnes above the old highs from last June, a mark that was approached in late-December before falling back again early in the new year, the new total of 1146.5 is now well clear of the old highs with more additions likely to come, given what’s happening in markets today.

Full Disclosure: Long gold coins and GLD at time of writing

Eric Sprott of Sprott Asset Management (who was unsuccessful in buying some of that IMF gold) talks to Maria Bartiromo about China, government spending,  and, of course, the  natural resource markets including the new Sprott Physical Gold Trust (NYSE:PHYS).

The new fund offers a number of intriguing features such as low tax rates and the option for physical delivery but, best of all, the custodian is the Royal Canadian Mint rather than JP Morgan or HSBC. As for stocks in general, he says he’s been “wrong since March of ‘09″ and doesn’t intend to change that view anytime soon.

Full Disclosure: No position in PHYS at time of writing