The dollar shrugged off a slate of weak economic data Monday to trade higher against the euro, yen and pound, benefiting from a surprise rate cut from the People’s Bank of China.
The euro EURUSD, +0.12% fell to $1.1182, flat compared with its Friday-afternoon value of $1.1198. The buck USDJPY, -0.34% traded at 120.18 yen, its highest level in nearly three weeks. It traded at ¥119.63 Friday. The pound GBPUSD, +0.10% traded at $1.5366, compared with $1.5440 Friday.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six rival currencies, DXY, -0.20% rose 0.2% to 95.47.
On Nymex, April gasoline RBJ5, +1.34% fell 8.1 cents, or 4.1%, to end at $1.897 a gallon and April heating oil HOJ5, +0.82% settled at $1.887 a gallon, down 8.6 cents, or 4.4%. Futures prices for both products scored double-digit percentage gains for the month of February.
Also on Nymex, April natural gas NGJ15, -0.82% fell 3.6 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $2.698 per million British thermal units.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude futures for delivery in April CLJ5, +0.73% fell 17 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $49.59 a barrel. Prices had spent much of Monday’s trading session above the $50 mark, but turned lower in the last half hour of the trading session as losses for Brent crude intensified.
April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange LCOJ5, +1.46% dropped $3.04, or 4.9%, to settle at $59.54 a barrel.
