Crude oil price rebounded 2.4% to settle at 47.35 Monday. G-20 finance ministers' pledge to clean up toxic assets rekindled investors' hope that global economic conditions may recover soon. Moreover, flattening of forward contracts not only gave investors less motive than before to store up oil for future sale, but also indicated OPEC's previous production cuts has caused market tightening.

In Asian morning today, oil's rally eases as economists forecast another week of inventory build in the US. According to Bloomberg survey, crude stockpiles probably gained 1 mmb to 352.3 mmb for the week ended Mar 13.

Credit Suisse has revised downward its oil price forecast to $50/bbl from $60/bbl as the investment banks expected global economic outlook in 2009 will be weaker than previously expected and contraction in oil demand may exceed the bank's forecast of 1%.

Stock markets in Asia soared for the third consecutive trading day. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 1.55, Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 2.91% while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index gained almost by 2%. RBA signaled in its minutes for the central bank meeting in March that further rate cuts will be likely in coming meetings.

Gold price lost its appeal yesterday as investors' risk-appetite increased. Near-term outlook for gold is mixed. While advance in stock markets will temper gold' rally, potential quantitative easing measures in the US will trigger resumption in dollar's weakness.

The FED will start a 2-day FOMC meeting today and announce rate decision and other policy measures Wednesday. While we believe the central bank will keep interest rates unchanged, we expect it may buy long term Treasury bonds to help the credit-tightened housing market.