Oil price remains under pressure after plummeting 8% to close at 37.59 Monday. Investors are waiting for the petroleum inventory to be reported by the US Energy Department tomorrow and economists expect crude stockpiles would have gained 2.25 M bbl in the week ended Jan 9. Both gasoline and distillate supplies probably added 1.5M bbls during the week, too. Judging from the steep contango structure as shown in the futures curves, there's strong incentive for investors to store up oil.

The stock markets in Asia also tumble because prices of oil and other commodities drop. The MSCI Asia Pacific index lost 3% and Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 4% in morning session. Recessions in developed countries have obviously affected emerging markets. In China, exports got the biggest slump since 1999 by dropping 2.8% in December. Moreover, imports fell 21.3% during the month, indicating domestic economy is also slowing down.

Gold price dropped 4% yesterday as the Euro fell to one-month low. Rising dollar and plunging commodity prices reduced investors' need for inflation hedge. Due to economic downturn, physical buying of gold was lower than previous years. On Tuesday morning, the benchmark futures recover slightly to 826.5 on bargain hunting.

Platinum price lost ground after China reported weak vehicle sales data. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported 8% drop in sales of passenger-cars , the slowest increase in 9 years. The association also forecasts the country's overall vehicle sales (including trucks and buses may rose 5% in 2009, the slowest in 11 years, following an increase of 7.3% in 2008. The slowdown in China will have great impact in international auto giants such as General Motors which relies on emerging market sales to compensate loss in OECD demands. In fact, General Motors' sales from China accounted for 6% the total sales, down from 19% in 2007.