Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett is getting his "comeuppance" after rejecting gold as an investment four years ago, according to Marc Westlake, head of wealth management at Dublin-based bullion brokerage Gold & Silver Investments Ltd. The CHART OF THE DAY shows gold more than doubled since May 2005, while Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares gained 6.8 percent. Buffett said at the company's annual meeting in May 2005 that he wouldn't get rid of assets for "a hunk of metal which had no real utility other than to people that are fleeing the dollar." The point is gold has preserved a chunk of wealth that would have been otherwise taken down with other financial instruments," Westlake said.

Gold hit resistance at $990 and a bout of profit taking has seen the metal drop back to $966. The next major level of resistance is $999 and $1006 thereafter, which would signal a new yearly high.

The Bank of England and the ECB are expected to leave interest rates unchanged today. The ECB is unlikely to signal it will buy more than the 60 billion euro ($85 billion) of covered bonds it had already said it would, pointing at the green shots of recovery as way of explanation.

Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman, said the recent sharp increases in bond yields "appear to reflect concern about large federal deficits" as well as improved optimism about the economy and urged Congress on Wednesday to act now to bring down long-term budget deficits, warning that a failure to do so might lead to a future debt trap.

The market will be looking for direction from non-farm payroll data released in the US tomorrow.