Recently, crude oil for April delivery was up $1.77 at $49.12 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil was adding 6 cents to $1.27 a gallon, and reformulated gasoline was higher by 4 cents at $1.41 a gallon. Natural gas was down 5 cents to $3.80 per million British thermal units.
As for metals, gold was slipping $1 to $915.80 an ounce, while silver was unchanged at $12.67 an ounce. Platinum crept lower, and palladium was slightly in the green. Copper was fractionally weaker at $1.72 a pound.
On the agricultural side, cocoa, corn, cotton, frozen concentrated orange juice and soybeans fell, while wheat, sugar and coffee rose. Cattle and lean hogs edged lower.
In the foreign exchange market, the dollar was mixed, rising against the yen, the pound and the Australian dollar, but dropping vs. the euro and the Swiss franc.
Among commodity-related stocks, Eldorado Gold (EGO Quote - Cramer on EGO - Stock Picks) was down 6% to $7.07 after being downgraded at CIBC World Markets. Pan American Silver (PAAS Quote - Cramer on PAAS - Stock Picks), though, was up 1.3% at $14.35 after getting an upgrade from the same firm.
Rio Tinto (RTP Quote - Cramer on RTP - Stock Picks), which named a new chairman and offered a downbeat outlook, was off 4.5% at $111.19.
Other miners were also weak. BHP Billiton (BHP Quote - Cramer on BHP - Stock Picks) ticked lower by 0.2% to $41.21, and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX Quote - Cramer on FCX - Stock Picks) was giving back 2.3% to $36.39. Newmont Mining (NEM Quote - Cramer on NEM - Stock Picks) was down 3.1%.
