NovaGold (AMEX:NG) Soars as Spot Gold Jumps

If NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) could be thought of as a short-term bellwether in the mining sector, their performance Wednesday shows the pent-up demand waiting for gold miners, as gold investors wait on the sidelines ready for an excuse to pounce again with gold prices start moving up.

NovaGold finished Wednesday just shy of a 7 percent gain, rising $0.90, or 6.99 percent. Spot gold prices were up over $13 an ounce on the day, and rising after hours.

This doesn't mean it's necessarily time to get back into gold mining stocks, or gold in general, it just points out the fact that tension is building in the market and any excuse to pour back into gold should give it another huge push upwards in price, benefiting a large number of companies with significant exposure to the yellow metal.

Even so, as far as NovaGold goes, that doesn't even count their heavy exposure to copper, which many think will go up in price even more than gold in 2011, although in a much more volatile performance, as silver usually reacts.