“The price of oil dropped below $95 a barrel on Friday as a strengthening dollar made crude more expensive for traders using other currencies.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for June delivery was down $1.74 to $94.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contact lost 23 cents to finish at $96.39 a barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.
Since oil is traded in dollars, a stronger dollar makes crude and other commodities less appealing to investors with other currencies.
On Friday, the euro was down to $1.2998 from $1.3041 late Thursday in New York. The dollar also gained on the Japanese yen and was trading at 101.34 yen on Friday, the first time it broke above 100 yen in over four years, since April 2009.
Recent signs of improvement in U.S. employment data have sparked speculation that the Federal Reserve might scale back its aggressive monetary policy.
Traders were also influenced by remarks Thursday by Charles Plosser, president of the Fed’s Philadelphia regional bank, said Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne…..”
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