Crude oil price slid by almost $2/bbl to 43.85 before recovering to 44.46 in Asian morning as OPEC, after Sunday's meeting in Vienna, announced to defer production cut at least until the next meeting (May 27). According to the cartel, further cuts may raise energy costs for consumers and business which in turns will prolong the world economy from recovering from its worst recession in 60 years.

OPEC also said that reductions in outputs in previous months have shown some impact on tightening the oil market. 'Some initial signs reported of a reversal in crude oil-stock trends and a narrowing of the contango in the front price structure indicated that the adjustment process instigated through OPEC measures vis-a-vis excess supply in the market is gradually helping to redress balance.'

The organization emphasized its commitment to comply fully with the 4.2M bpd cut (from the actual production in September 08) agreed in December 2008 in order to further contribute to market stability. According to OPEC the compliance level was 79% as of February, lower than the 80-83% estimated by economists.

OPEC's wait-and-see approach had been more or less anticipated. According to Bloomberg survey done last Friday, the majority of analysts forecast the OPEC would not cut in March. This was in contrast with the survey done in early March that over 75% of the analysts anticipated a cut.

Gold for April delivery trades narrowly above $920/oz. Outlook for gold and other precious metal stay bullish as investment demand may increase after the SNB announced currency intervention last week. Investment in the SPDR Gold Trust surged 1.5% to 1056.82 metric tons Friday.

According to CFTC's Commitment of Traders, net speculative short position for crude oil increased by 5 483 to 6 015 contracts while that for natural gas futures reduced to 114 064 from 127 734 a week ago. Concerning precious metals, net long position for gold and silver futures dropped slightly to 144 788 and 25 282 while that for platinum rose to 8 250 contracts.