ICE November Brent futures rose 48 cents, or 0.5%, to $92.79 a barrel, rebounding from Friday’s drop to the lowest close for a nearby futures contract since June 2012. Nymex WTI crude futures for November delivery the U.S. benchmark, rose 60 cents, or 0.7%, to $90.34 a barrel, rebounding from a six-month low set in the biggest down week since early August. Traders blamed the surging U.S. dollar for weakness across commodity markets last week. A stronger currency can weigh on commodities priced in dollars by making them more expensive to users of other currencies.
The ICE dollar index a measure of the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals, rose 1.2% last week. The index retreated Monday. The dollar extended gains on Friday after a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report. Some strategists, however, argue that the dollar’s strength and broad weakness in commodities may be cause for concern about the global economic outlook as investors weigh weak data in China, the eurozone and elsewhere outside the U.S. To dismiss the fall in oil and other commodities “as just [a function of] the dollar fails to grasp what the dollar is trying to say about the global economy and where we are going from here,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, in a note. “It represents a total about face from where we were at the beginning of the financial crisis and it signals that around the globe many economies still face struggles that will take its toll on demand, he said.