Gold, oil and other commodities, equities are all on a downhill today with central banks across the world going for fresh round of easing in different ways.

Today, Brazil and South Korea surprised the markets with a rate cut today. Brazil's central bank slashed the country's benchmark interest rate to a new historic low, with the rate now 4-1/2 points down from where it stood as recently as August.

South Korea's central bank on Thursday unexpectedly lowered interest rates by a quarter-point to 3%, joining several regional and global peers to support growth amid weakening economic indicators. The rate cut is the first from the Bank of Korea in more than three years.

The Bank of Japan on Thursday left its policy interest rate unchanged in the current range of 0% to 0.1% by a unanimous vote, noting that the economy is expected to chart a moderate recovery path despite a high degree of uncertainty in the global outlook. The BOJ reaffirmed its commitment to steadily increasing the size of its asset purchase program, but didn't announce any immediate increase in the overall size of the program on Thursday.

According to the minutes released on Wednesday, only a few officials thought that more asset purchases would be necessary at the Federal Reserve's policy meeting in June. Since the meeting, there has been weak reports for manufacturing and unemployment for June, which may have pushed more Fed officials to support more easing.

Gold for August delivery are trading down $5 at $ 1571 per ounce on COMEX division of New York Mercantile Exchange. It may find support near $1555 and $1530 levels.

Crude for August delivery is down 20 cent at $85.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday, it advanced $1.90, or 2.3%, to settle at $85.81 a barrel. It ended sharply higher Wednesday, helped by a report showing a larger-than-expected decline in crude inventories.

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