The U.S. dollar index is trading with considerable strength, currently up 1.1%. It was up as much as 1.6% earlier... Gains in the dollar are pushing gold and silver markedly lower... Gold was recently indicated at $849.00 per ounce, which is down 3.5%. Silver, meanwhile, recently traded hands at $10.80 per ounce, down roughly 6.0% this session. Both metals are trading a bit off their lows... Crude oil is showing resilience against the dollar, however. Crude was recently indicated roughly 2.4% higher at $47.50 per barrel. Crude's early gains come on top of the prior week's near-20% gain... Natural gas is trading a bit above the unchanged mark near $5.98 per contract... The gains in crude and natural gas have helped the energy sector outperform the broader market in the early going. The energy sector is currently up 0.6% with help from integrated oil players (+1.6%)... Still, weakness in other commodities has the CRB commodity index trading 0.7% lower. That has weighed on the materials sector, which is off by 1.8%. Weakness is pronounced in Newmont Mining (NEM 38.55, -1.78) and Monsanto (MON 73.10, -0.62)... Dow -92.07... Nasdaq -22.73... S&P 500 -8.98... Trading up: MFLX +24.4%, AHD +17.7%, SBLK +11.2%, SLT +11.2%, DDR +9.5%, OCNF +8.9%, DRYS +8.7%, BKS +8.6%, ARTC +8%, TER +7.9%, PVX +7%... Trading down: CNMD -25.4%, DGII -17.8%, RCRC -16.8%, DHX -16.7%, SKS -15.6%, GSIC -14.6%, SNV -10.5%, LIHR -10.2%, ICE -8%, ALGT -7.7%, UCBH -7.2%, GEOY -7%, GBCI -6.7%.
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