Gold's ascent sets tone for market

The stockmarket closed marginally higher led by resources as gold moved higher towards a milestone price.
The ASX 200 was 16.5 points higher at 4665.3 while the All Ordinaries gained 17.7 to 4610.2.
Ord Minnett research director Russell Lander said many commodities were enjoying strong prices, underpinning the performance of the resources sector.
"The main interest has been in the resources," Mr Lander said. "We have had a good run in the gold stocks today.
"Gold really does affect people's mood … and people become very irrational, get excited and they rush into stocks."
The spot gold price was trading at $US498.40, approaching the $US500 an ounce mark, and up from Friday's $US495.25 close.
Newmont Mining rose 26c to $6.52 as its president said the company was considering a rival bid for Canadian takeover target Placer Dome. Newcrest jumped 94c to $21.61, Kingsgate Consolidated added 12c to $4.17 while Lihir rose 19c to $2.32.
Elsewhere, Rio Tinto fell 12c to $62.09 while BHP Billiton put on 20c to $22.22.
Woodside was the star performer of the energy sector, putting on 70c to $35.30, Santos rose 35c to $11.75 while Oil Search added 10c to $3.48.
Oil refiner Caltex Australia added 14c to $21.34 after saying its 2005 financial results would surpass those of 2004.
Big banks rose with Westpac up 8c to $22.18, NAB 7c firmer at $32.72, CBA adding 5c to $42 ANZ 1c ahead at $23.81.
Macquarie fell 17c to $68.03 and St George shed 73c to $28.96 after going ex-dividend.
West Australian Newspapers fell 20c to $8 after it announced its managing director and chief executive Ian Law was resigning to take up a role with PBL.
Gaming group Tabcorp slid 80c to $15.85 after it said high fuel prices and smoking bans would slow revenue growth.
Grain producer ABB Grain posted an improved annual net profit of $17.7 million, underpinning a 3c improvement in its share price to $7.08.
Woolworths jumped 17c to $17.43 while Coles Myer rose 4c to $10.14 as economists tipped a rise in retail trade for October ahead of data expected from the Bureau of Statistics tomorrow.
Telstra lost 5c to $3.88, after reaching a low of $3.87. The telecom was the most traded stock, with more than 40.96 million shares swapping hands for a total value of $159.76 million.