By: John Darsie of T3Live
After surging to fill the gap in the morning, the market turned sharply lower in the last hour of trading on heavy volume. A discouraging increase in jobless claims this morning was the catalyst for pre-market losses, and traders are selling off positions into tomorrow’s precarious unemployment rate and non-farm payrolls number.
Commodities accelerated to the downside Thursday after surprisingly dovish talk from ECB Chairman Jean Claude Trichet, which sent the Euro plummeting. The dollar’s strength rocked the inflated commodities, with the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (UUP) up an astounding 1.5% on more than 300% average daily volume. The United States Oil Fund LP ETF (USO) was down more than 9%, which could potentially aid the economic recovery in the US, while the iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) dropped another 12%! At the recent press conference Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke asserted his belief that skyrocketing commodity prices were transitory, and much maligned as he is, you have to give credit where credit is due.
