Oil's up, gold's up, the Dow's up - so's the ASX

The sharemarket jumped to a record close as rising commodity prices and a positive lead from Wall Street underpinned an optimistic local bourse.
The ASX 200 closed up 35.3 points at 5283.9, beating Tuesday's closing record of 5248.6 after setting a new high during trading of 5301.8.
The All Ordinaries rose 32.9 to 5233.2, beating Tuesday's record of 5200.3 after earlier touching 5250.1.
"We had higher oil prices, higher gold prices, higher copper prices and even a higher Dow, and that has flowed through to a very strong market today with strength across the board," said Fat Prophets director Angus Geddes.
The price of oil peaked at an all-time high overnight, with crude for May delivery closing at $US71.35 a barrel after reaching $US71.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Other commodities were also setting records, with base metals such as copper and zinc higher while gold, silver and palladium hit multi-year highs.
The uplift boosted mining stocks, with BHP Billiton jumping 57c to $31.25, Rio Tinto $2.25 to $85.31 and Alumina 10c to $7.83.
Newcrest Mining put on 62c to $23.48 while Newmont climbed 10c to $7.64, Lihir rose 7c to $3.03, Bendigo rose 2c to $2.34 and even Emperor was up 2½c to 48½c. Kingsgate was up 8c at 46.34.
Energy stocks were also stronger, with Woodside Petroleum up 59c to $49.09 and Santos edging up 2c to $12.35. Oil Search gained 8c to $4.38, a new high, and Beach, too, hit a record of $1.43½, up 4c. At $2.28, up 7c, Hardman Resources is approaching its August high of $2.56.
However, the rising oil price means petrol prices are also set to rise, which could dampen consumer spending.
The key retail stocks, which have recently enjoyed a strong run, fell back. Woolworths lost 18c to $18.83 despite analysts responding favourably to the supermarket group's 23 per cent increase in third-quarter sales.
Coles Myer fell 6c to $10.77, David Jones eased 7c to $2.85 and Harvey Norman shed 12c to $3.85.
Metals recycler Sims Group rose 73c to $18.93 after upgrading its third quarter earnings guidance.
Telstra was steady at $3.67 and shopping centre group Westfield dropped 15c to $16.75.
Qantas rose 5c to $3.44 after the airline revealed it was considering increasing its fuel surcharge as a result of higher oil prices.
Banks rallied, with NAB growing 37c to $37.36, the Commonwealth moving up 19c to $46.50, Westpac gaining 11c to $24.76 and ANZ 10c to $27.40. Macquarie jumped 91c to $69 but St George fell 5c to $30.60.
Toll shares fell 15c to $14.16 while Patrick dipped 2c to $8.59.
Toll's $6 billion-plus takeover of Patrick was no fait accompli, analysts said. CreditSuisse analysts said they could not rule out the possibility of another bidder with Toll's bid becoming final later this week.
Biota rose 3c to $1.69 after announcing the US Department of Defense had ordered more than $US5 million worth of its influenza drug Relenza.
The top traded stock was Macquarie Infrastructure Group with 38.6 million securities changing hands for a total value of $140.9 million. The stock closed steady at $3.65.
There was also a new record for the number of trades in equities, warrants and interest rate securities, with more than 206,000 trades worth $6.005 billion, according to the stock exchange.