Cereplast, Inc. announced this morning that the company has received financing from a European group of investors led by a major bank in Sweden. The company will use the funding to implement its new strategic plan to accelerate growth as well as finance manufacturing supply agreements for the company’s major customers.

“The additional capital allows us to move forward aggressively in a very challenging economic environment,” stated Frederic Scheer, Chairman and CEO of Cereplast. “This investor group clearly understands the rapidly growing market opportunity for bio-plastics and has endorsed our business model that leverages our proprietary product development capabilities and marketing strengths.”

“The new licensing structure has the potential to help Cereplast land contracts with large packaging companies, which require large quantities of resin in a short time,” commented Rene Nicolodi, senior sustainability analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank (Zurich Cantonal Bank), which began looking at Cereplast two years ago as a

Morning Coffee, Canaccord Capital (02/17/2009)
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD: US$92.55), Net Change: -0.62,% Change: -0.67%, Volume: 14,717,061 Where does it end? The SPDR Gold Trust finished off a huge week by added another 15.3 metric tonnes (mt) of gold on Friday to hold 985.9 mt – another record. For the week, the ETF has added 118.67 mt of gold. The SPDR Gold Trust is now the second largest ETF in the U.S. – the largest being the SPDR S&P 500. It’s not just the SPDR Gold Trust that is attracting major investor interest. According to the Age, assets other gold ETFs touched all-time highs last Friday: ETF Securities’ Physical Gold fund rose to 2.299 million ounces and Zuercher Kantonalbank’s fund has record assets of 3.734 million ounces.

Commodity market watcher Dennis Gartman put it best when he said last week, “. . .We are a bit concerned about the speculative …

“Zuercher Kantonalbank, the Swiss lender that manages about $107 billion, said its gold vault is full after a surge in demand from investors seeking a haven during the credit crunch.

Assets in the Zurich-based bank’s ZKB Gold ETF, backed by about 2.66 million ounces of the metal, have risen to a record for seven consecutive weeks. That amount of gold is worth about $2.25 billion at today’s prices and equal to about 12 days of global production.

“Demand is so strong,” Susanne Toren, a metals analyst at the bank, said by telephone from Zurich today. “Our vaults are full right up to the top.”

Investors are buying gold coins and bars, and exchange- traded funds backed by physical metal, after banks including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed. Assets in SPDR Gold Trust, the largest ETF backed by bullion, advanced to a record 770.64 tons (24.78 million ounces) on Oct. 10.

Zuercher Kantonalbank, which …