BR: Commodities Fall On Strength in Dollar; Crude Recovers Modestly
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[BRIEFING.COM] A recent spike in the US Dollar Index, which pushed it to a fresh session high at 80.667, sent most commodities into negative territory or further in the red. The Index has since pulled back slightly, which has pushed crude back in the black.
On the dollar's strength earlier, March crude oil pushed down below the $80 level, falling below the unchanged line to new morning lows of $79.45 per barrel. However, minutes ago crude spiked ~$0.50, pushing it back into positive territory to $79.90, up 0.1%. March natural gas has traded in negative territory all session so far and is trading just above recently hit lows of $4.874 per MMBtu. The energy component is the worst performing commodity in the CRB Commodity Index today, which is trading -1.73 at 276.07, while natural gas is trading just above morning lows at $4.892, down 3%.
After trading at or modestly above the flat line, precious metals dipped in the red due to strength in the dollar just after 8:30ET. However, the recent rally in the dollar pushed April gold and March silver notably lower and to fresh session lows of $1113.40 and $16.185 per ounce, respectively. Currently, gold is 0.6% lower at $1115.80 per ounce, while silver is 0.9% lower at $16.26 per ounce.