"Gold and silver are justifying their reputation as safe havens, which is hardly surprising in the current climate," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said in a research note.
"In addition to the war in Libya, the unrest in the Arab region and the disaster in Japan, the debt crisis in eurozone periphery countries have also returned with a vengeance to the centre of market interest."
Will Hedden, sales trader at IG Index said the stock markets appeared not to be too concerned about Portugal, where they consider a bailout inevitable.
"Equity markets across Europe and the US seem to have already priced this in before the outbreak of the Japanese and Libyan crises, hence why they continue to head towards pre-crisis levels," Hedden said. CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson warned against complacency, noting that the "banking sector is up today which seems strange given the problems with Portugal and the downgrade of Spanish banks by Moody's.
"I think the market is being complacent about a resolution or an agreement on a debt management solution at (a two-day EU summit in Brussels), given the competing political factors pulling on European politicians."
The Lisbon stock market gained 1.12 percent, not to be outdone by its European peers after shrugging off an additional negative in the shape of a Fitch two-notch ratings downgrade. The euro meanwhile was at $1.4184, up from $1.4083 in New York late Wednesday while the dollar was little changed at 80.92 yen after 80.94 yen.
"The markets anticipated the Portuguese parliament's decision to reject the austerity plans and priced it in accordingly," said ETX Capital trader Anita Paluch. Jane Foley at Rabobank said it was unlikely that EU leaders will deliver the comprehensive debt management accord which the markets believe is needed to resolve a deep-seated eurozone crisis.
In New York, stocks also advanced despite mixed data on the economy showing a slow improvement on the jobs front but still-weak manufacturing. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.59 percent at around 1730 GMT and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.11 percent. The market appeared to shrug off negative news, analysts at Briefing.com said.
"The hits keep coming, yet the US stock market is still standing." In Asian trade earlier Thursday, Tokyo closed down 0.15 percent, giving up early gains after news of fresh problems at the badly damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. Hong Kong gained 0.39 percent, Shanghai was flat and Sydney rose 1.01 percent.