Crude oil futures settled on Monday, 23 March 2015 at their highest level in almost two weeks on the back of a weaker U.S. dollar, despite comments from Saudi Arabia that indicated it would maintain crude-production levels.
May crude tacked on 88 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $47.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Meanwhile, the commodity market took some cues from the latest moves in the dollar which saw a steep decline on Monday. The dollar last week took a breather from a torrid rally that had put pressure on gold and other commodity markets, after the Federal Reserve appeared to signal that rates would rise more slowly than had been anticipated by the market.
Commodities priced in dollars can trade inversely with the dollar, as moves in the U.S. unit can influence the attractiveness of those commodities to holders of other currencies.
Economic data was limited to existing home sales for February, which increased 1.2% from January to an annualized rate of 4.88 million units (consensus 4.90 million). Supply problems continue exerting downward pressure on home sales. Inventories remained at a 4.6 months' supply at the current sales rate for the second consecutive month. During normal periods of market activity, inventories are generally maintained at 6.0 months' supply.
Among other energy products, April gasoline rose more than a half cent to $1.804 a gallon and April heating oil settled at $1.731 gallon, down less than half a cent for the session.
April natural gas fell 5.3 cents, or 1.9%, to end at $2.733 per million British thermal units.