The dollar index remains lower, which is helping provide broad-based strength in the commodities complex this morning. Soft commodities are some of the best performers with cotton showing gains of 2.4% and cocoa up 2.3%.
Crude oil has been in positive territory all morning, but never broke the $95 level. The energy component hit $94.90/barrel (continuous contract) about 40 minutes before floor trading began and that remains the current high for the day. In current activity, crude is up 1.1% at $94.64/barrel.
Natural gas has been higher all session so far as well. In recent trade, it extended gains to new session highs of $4.39/MMBtu and is now 1.4% higher at $4.38/MMBtu.
Gold and silver staged a small rally right around the time the stock market opened. Gold pushed to new session highs of $1546.70/oz. and silver ran higher to around $36.37/oz. Gold is currently 0.3% higher at $1547.00/oz. while silver is up 1.0% at $36.44/oz.
