Oil is on the rise in early morning trade ahead of the release of the latest weekly U.S. crude inventories data by the Department of Energy at 1030 ET. The American Petroleum Institute reported Tuesday that stockpiles rose by 2.23 million barrels to 364.1 million, its highest level for the period in five years. Gold is up to reach record highs yet again, and many analysts expect the yellow metal to hit $1,300 an ounce as the Federal Reserve's signal Tuesday after its FOMC meeting that it would be ready to pump fresh cash into the sluggish economy hurt the greenback and increased investors' appetite for safe haven assets. Indeed, BNP Paribas raised its gold price projections to average $1,200 an ounce in 2010 and $1,290 in 2011 from its earlier estimates of $1,190 and $1,245 respectively. At 0750 ET, Brent crude is up 0.2% at $78.56 a barrel, while light sweet crude is up 0.5% at $75.35 a barrel, and natural gas is up 0.7% at $3.95 a million British thermal units. Gold is up 1.4% at $1,292.40 an ounce, while silver is up 2.1% at $21.07 an ounce, and silver is up 0.4% at $3.50 a pound. Total SA ( TOT ) will resume exploring a deep offshore block in Brunei after the project was stopped seven years ago due to a border dispute with Malaysia. Investors in the project are Petronas and Murphy Oil Corp( MUR ). The project's original partners, BHP Billiton Ltd ( BHP ) and Hess Corp ( HES ) have cut back their stakes. LDK Solar Co Ltd ( LDK ) will repay $224.9 million to Q-Cells SE (QCE) by the end of 2011 to resolve a dispute over solar wafer supply contract between the Chinese and German companies. In the mining sector, Silver Predator Corp (SPD) announced the close of its oversubscribed private placement. The company had originally announced placement of 4.8 million units, and it ended issuing a total of 5.19 million units at 36 Canadian cents a share.

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