Commodities were mixed Wednesday morning, with most energy contracts declining while agricultural futures were generally gaining ground.
Recently, crude oil futures for April delivery were down 97 cents at $44.74 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil was off 2 cents, and gasoline futures were down 4 cents. Natural gas, however, was higher by 5 cents at $3.89 per million British thermal units.
As for metals, gold was up $4.50 at $900.40 an ounce, and silver was gaining 15 cents to $12.69 an ounce. Copper was slightly weaker.
On the ag side, futures were mostly stronger. Cocoa, coffee, soybeans and wheat rose, but corn and frozen concentrated orange juice eased. Meanwhile, cattle and hogs ticked to the upside.
In foreign exchange trading, the dollar was falling against its major counterparts, dropping 1.1% against the euro to $1.2772. The greenback was buying 98.12 yen, down from 98.89 previously, a loss of 0.8%. The Australian dollar gained 1.4% against the U.S. currency.
