Crude oil breaks $90; investors look to gold

Crude oil surged to a record high of $90.02 a barrel before dropping back to $89.28 on Friday, largely driven by a widening supply gap and further weakening of the US dollar.

Gold also hit a record high of $776.9 per ounce on Friday after rising 4.1 percent over the past week.

The most actively traded crude oil futures contracts for delivery in November on the New York Mercantile Exchange surged 10 percent from last Wednesday to $89.28 on Friday.