US dollar up versus commodity-related currencies

Story link: US dollar up versus commodity-related currencies

The US dollar made gains against commodity-related currencies on Thursday as commodities prices continued their declines on worries that demand for commodities will decline with the weak US economy.

In early afternoon trade in New York, West Texas Intermediate crude oil for May delivery was down $1.84 from Wednesday’s close to $100.70 per barrel, while April gold had dropped $24.50 to $920.80 per troy ounce, both down significantly from recent record highs.

The dollar was at 89.67 cents to the Australian dollar in early afternoon trade in New York, while it was worth 97.21 cents to the Canadian dollar and it took R8.2455 to buy a dollar.

In addition, the dollar was stronger in relation to the euro at $1.5428 after being at $1.5405 earlier in the session, while the greenback traded at $1.9824 to the pound.

The pound, meanwhile, was stronger versus the euro after the Office of National Statistics reported that retail sales were up 1 percent in the UK in February over January, against an expectation of an 0.2 percent decline.

At early afternoon in New York, the pound traded at 77.83p to the euro, but it had dropped versus the yen to ¥195.3552 to the pound.