The euro moved off a nine-year low reached Wednesday morning as bargain-driven investors scooped up the currency at its lows.
In recent trade, the euro EURUSD, -0.11% was worth $1.183, slightly above a 9-year low of $1.180 reached earlier in Wednesday’s session.
The yen also weakened against the dollar USDJPY, +0.40% in early North American trade, continuing a trend that began in the Asia trading day. The yen traded at 119.20, compared to 118.71 Tuesday.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.11% , a measure of the dollar’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six currencies, was up 0.61% on the day to 92.0540,slightly below a nine-year high reached earlier in the session.
The krone USDNOK, -0.11% traded at 7.70 to the dollar Wednesday afternoon. It traded at 7.74 to the dollar Tuesday afternoon.
Natural gas also for February NGG15, -1.18% retreated 7 cents, or 2.3%, to $2.8710 per million British thermal units – the lowest settlement for a front-month contract since September 2012.
Elsewhere in energy trading, gasoline for February RBG5, -3.43% declined 2 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $1.3376 a gallon on Nymex. February heating oil HOG5, +0.55% dropped 3 cents, or 1.5%, to $1.6999 a gallon on Nymex.
U.S. crude oil rose Wednesday, snapping a four-session losing streak after a dip below $47 a barrel earlier in the day.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery CLG5, +1.03% rose 72 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $48.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude for February delivery LCOG5, +0.72% on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 5 cents, or 0.1%, to finish at $51.15 a barrel.
It had earlier briefly dropped below the $50-a-barrel mark for the first time since May 2009. Brent retreated 3.8% Tuesday.
