Apart from the strengthening dollar, comments of a senior Gulf source weighed on oil. According to the comments, the majority of OPEC countries, including Saudi Arabia, consider 100 USD per barrel (USD/bbl) to be a fair price. Moreover, Saudi Arabia was said to be in talks with its customers about an increase in oil shipments.
Although the source reiterated that the recent price surge had not been driven by fundamentals, the comments indicate that the OPEC might have reconsidered calls of G7 countries (that had been made last week) on oil producing countries to boost their production. Recall that similar comments (or commitments) of Saudi officials contributed to a significant fall in oil prices earlier this year.
Precious Metals
Gold hit a new 6-1/2 month high today in early trading in a reaction to the further monetary stimulus introduced by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to boost its economy. The BoJ thus joined the Fed and the ECB and eased its policy by raising the program of asset purchases by 10 trillion yen. This was more than the consensus in the market.
Recall that gold was one of assets which benefited the most from the previous rounds of (US) quantitative easing. On the other hand, one should bear in mind that the room for gains might be limited by lower demand from traditional consumers - for example, the price of the metal in rupees is seen just shy of an all-time high.