"People are sensing the instability, and the instability is causing people to want to buy hard assets," says Peter Spina, analyst at the GoldForecaster.com & GoldSeek.com, in Denver. "The primary reason is that lack of confidence in the financial system."

Spina says the increasing uncertainty throughout the world about the quality of paper assets is also making the euro unpopular, as well as the greenback. Instead, he says, investors are buying gold as a long-term store of value.