WTI crude oil dived 8% Monday and closed below $50/bbl (48.41), the first time in more than a week, as stock markets tumbled. Dow Jones dropped 3.27% to settle at 7522.02 while S&P 500 Index slid 3.55 to close at 787.53. In Asia today, the benchmark contract recovers slightly to 49 but near-term risks shifts to the downside.

Yesterday, Obama's administration said that some banks may need more government funding than others. Moreover, the White House rejected turnaround plans from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler and said that automakers will need to submit better proposals for getting additional helps from the government. These news signaled economy recovery may be delayed.

In our weekly update, we mentioned that recent really in oil price was driven by back-end of the forward curve (long-term contracts) as investors played on the long-term growth story. Therefore, with near-term economic outlook and oil demand remained flaggy, the surge is vulnerable to deep correction. In fact, high oil price is detrimental to current demand condition because it will not only dampen consumption but also will trigger disciplinary issue in OPEC's production cuts.

After gaining 3.3 mmb for the week ended Mar 20, the market forecasts crude stockpile to have added another 3.5 mmb to 360 mmb last week. Industry-sponsored organization API will report its estimates on petroleum inventory later today.

Gold price rebounded to 919 after plunging to 908.6 Monday. The precious metal failed to benefit from this round of safe haven demand and capitals were moved to the USD after the currency dropped drastically last week. Despite this, gold's performance this quarter should be the best in a year as the needs for safe haven asset and a hedge against inflation have driven up investment demand.

World Gold Council released the latest gold holdings in world central banks with the top 3 continued to be the US, Germany and IMF. Bullion holdings in SPDR reached 1127.44 metric tons, just below Italy which has 2451.8 metric tons of gold reserve and ranks Number 5.