Exchange Rates and Oil Prices*

US dollar weakness in recent years is frequently cited as one reason for high oil prices. It is very common to see the financial press suggesting that a weak dollar has pushed oil prices higher. Empirically, there is clearly an inverse correlation between oil prices and exchange rates – that is, other things being equal, oil prices rise if the dollar falls. An assessment of the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) and of the one-year rolling average correlation between the daily change in the oil price and the daily change in the nominal effective exchange rate shows that this relationship has been relatively strong in recent years, although the negative correlation has been declining in recent months. What is less clear, though, is the direction of causality. Several econometric techniques suggest that causality may run from the oil price to the exchange rate, rather than the opposite.

How Transparent Are Crude Oil Derivatives Markets?*

Increased volatility, higher crude oil prices and the arrival of new financial participants in the crude oil market during the last decade have raised the question of whether financial players have an impact on commodity prices and price volatility. Unfortunately, limited publicly available data in both physical and financial markets makes it very hard to provide a definitive answer. Understanding the linkages between physical and financial markets on price formation requires more complete information on both than is currently available. Traders in derivatives markets rely on signals from current and expected physical fundamentals , but these signals can be distorted by imperfect or delayed information flows Therefore, it is crucial to have more timely and reliable information from physical markets in order to address the observed volatility as well as to determine the influence of different market participants on prices.