stindle

:) To be fair to the person, we bill ourselves as a simple email-based daily read of the financial news (hence the Q&A function for when we're not as simple as we'd like)

The point is definitely true of all US-dollar commodities (which is basically every commodity price out there). I wrote the article, actually, in response to a question from a reader of our email who was confused when I wrote: "commodities are priced in US dollars, so their price goes down as the US dollar goes up." I had initially thought perhaps that this concept was, as you say, more obvious than it actually appears to be for many people.

Original article & question is here: http://beta.finimize.com/general/too-much-oil-copper-too-lit...

I think it's mainly because a high oil price is good for the economies of oil-exporting countries, like Russia, Canada and Norway (to name a few). More exports = more economic growth. More economic growth (all things equal) should equal higher interest rates which leads to a more valuable currency.

The example assumes that all other factors (like demand) remain constant. You are correct in saying that a higher oil price will lead some users to switch to a different energy source in some scenarios. The point is to explain why financial commentators say (especially recently) that "the strong US dollar is causing commodities to sell off."