Gold futures briefly rose above $900 an ounce Friday for the first time as high oil prices, a weak dollar and fears of a U.S. recession led uneasy investors to keep buying the precious metal.

An ounce of gold for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped $6.50 to $900.10 in morning trading, an all-time high and a psychologically important milestone. Gold later slipped to $898.70 an ounce on profit-taking but remained in record territory.

“It’s a reflection of market sentiment: Gold is a hedge against uncertainty and right now it’s the best bet,” said Carlos Sanchez, a precious metals analyst at CPM Group in New York. “None of the other investment options look that great and gold does.”

Again, it’s no suprise that when oil prices rise, gold prices rise and the stock market falls. True to form, Wall Street plunged again Friday amid renewed fears that the financial sector’s troubles with bad credit won’t soon end and that some consumers are buckling under the weight of a slowing economy. The major indexes each lost more than 1 percent, including the Dow Jones industrials, which finished down nearly 250 points.