Gold Plunged Again After Madrid Blasts and Dollar Decline

Gold futures reached $458 an ounce Friday, the 16-year high, again fueled by the dollar's decline to a record low against the euro and after the series of explosions in Madrid in the last half hour of trading.

On Friday at least four explosions were reported in Madrid after a Basque newspaper said it had received a telephoned bomb threat from the Basque separatist group ETA, according to news reports.

February delivery gold futures closed at $457.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange?s COMEX division, up $5.50, after an earlier decline to $450.