Gold price continues to trade above 920 with a soft tone in European morning. Investors have shifted the focus from the Fed's inflationary asset buying program announced last week to the Treasury's PPIP. The G20 will be meeting next week. Earlier this week, the Chinese Government called for creating a new currency in replacement of the USD as a reserve currency. We believe the topic will be one of the main focuses in the summit and if the proposal gains support, gold will be an immediate beneficiary.

The Chinese central bank (PBOC) urged the IMF to be responsible for creating a 'super-sovereign reserve currency', a new currency which is free from inherent risks of credit-based currency and facilitates global liquidity. China, which possesses the world's largest reserve in USD ($740B), once again showed explicit concerns on USD. A central bank advisor said today that China has suffered badly from the dollar's role as a global standard. 2 weeks ago, Premier Wen Jiabao asked the US to 'guarantee the safety of China's asset.

Given the traditional inverse relationship between gold and USD, the risk that the USD will be substituted as the world's reserve currency should suppoty gold prices.

Apart from demand contraction (jewelry and industrial), financial crisis has also affected gold miners as banks have tightened credit and greatly increased the cost of borrowing (by almost 3 times)for small gold companies. Lack of capitals will cause project delays and abandonment on investments.

Crude oil price plunges after rising for 4 days. Currently trading at 52.87, the May contract lost 2% from Tuesday's close of 53.98 as stocks pull back as well. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Average edged lower by 0.1% due to weak exports data in February. Electronic appliances shares such as Sony and Panosonic plummeted. In February, Japan recorded a 49.4% yoy drop in exports as economies in its trading partners, particularly US and Europe, contracted seriously. Shipments to the US fell 58.4% yoy while exports to Europe also dropped a record 54.7%. Shipments to Asia declined 46.3% while demand from China slumped 39.7%. In European morning, UK's FTSE 100 started the day with 0.6% fall. In Germany and France, benchmark indices, namely DAX and CAC 40, also slid 0.25 and 0.5%, respectively.

The US Energy Department will report petroleum inventory for the week ended Mar 20. The following tables show analysts forecasts as well as a comparison with API's report released Tuesday.