Crude Oil, Gold Stung by Rising Dollar

Gold and oil prices were sliding Tuesday after an unexpectedly sound economic report boosted the value of the dollar against the other major currencies.

Benchmark bullion futures were losing $11.10 at $926.70 an ounce in recent action on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Near-dated crude contracts were losing $2.84 at $121.89 a barrel.

The drop came as the euro fell to $1.5596 from $1.5751 late Monday. The British pound was selling for $1.98, down from $1.9946 a day earlier, and the yen slid to 108.2 from 107.5.

Supporting the greenback was a Conference Board report showing that consumer confidence rose to 51.9 in July, exceeding the consensus expectation of 50 and up from 51 in the prior month.

"We might have hit a bottom cyclically, but the 1980-81 and 1990-91 historical experience suggests we are quarters away from economic growth hitting any sustained trend speed," says T.J. Marta, a fixed-income strategist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

Although the reading is much better than expected, it was still the fifth-worst reading since the data series began in 1967, he says.

The SPDR Gold Trust(GLD) was losing 1.6%. The United States Oil(USO) exchange-traded fund was skidding 3%.

The CurrencyShares Euro Trust(FXE) was down 0.9%. The CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust(FXY) and the CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling(FXB) were both losing 0.7%.

In the precious-metals patch, Newmont Mining(NEM) was slipping 2.2%, weighed down by the falling price of gold.

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