Strong USD Compounds Commodity Rout

A stronger U.S. dollar is compounding an oil market rout that has seen crude prices fall by almost 20 percent this month, and options trades suggest the market is preparing for deeper losses ahead.

The accelerated oil price drop since the beginning of the year has been largely blamed on China’s stock market turmoil and its slowing economy, yet the dollar’s strength is emerging as another important bearish factor, traders and analysts said.

The U.S. dollar index has risen more than 20 percent since mid-2014 as a relatively robust U.S. economy attracted investor flows from other regions. The Federal Reserve’s first increase in U.S. interest rates in a decade in December and the prospect for further rises are expected to continue underpinning the greenback going forward.

Since oil is traded in dollars, a stronger greenback makes it more expensive for countries using other currencies to buy fuel, potentially denting demand.

“No doubt, U.S. dollar is a key factor that is driving the oil price down,” said Oystein Berentsen, managing director of crude oil at trading company Strong Petroleum (0852.HK) in Singapore, although he said there were many reasons for the price collapse, “the basic one being overproduction.”

Crude oil futures have fallen more than 70 percent since mid-2014 as soaring global production leaves hundreds of thousands of barrels every day without buyers, creating an overhang that storage facilities around the world are struggling to cope with.

via Reuters

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza