U.S. Dollar Gains Triggering Commodity Selling and Losses

The U.S. dollar gained some strength today, as manufacturing data from the United States, as well as retail sales in the U.S. increasing last week helped prop it up.

News of the Swiss Bank UBS and Deutsche Bank of Germany that they will be writing down $23 billion also helped the dollar out for now.

"We look for the U.S. dollar to generally guide pricing today now that military activity in southern Iraq has subsided and most financial markets are showing some stability," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates.

Commodities were widely down, as oil, gold, copper and wheat all fell on the dollar's rise. It was the third straight day that oil fell.