Quote from Landis82:
Yes, it can.
I'd explain it to you, but it would take an Econ. 101A course in order to explain it.
Here is a summary that was issued by Goldman Sachs Research Paper back in May of this year:
âSo is the weaker dollar driving oil prices up or are high oil prices driving the dollar down?
The Goldman analysts (Nordvig and Currie) argue the latter because oil exporters import more from Europe than America and hold less of their oil revenues in dollars. A second factor lies with central banks. Because the Fed focuses on âcoreâ inflation (which excludes food and fuel), whereas the ECB targets overall inflation, Americaâs central bank runs a looser policy in response to higher oil prices, thus pushing the dollar down.â
The Goldman paper suggests that the United Statesâ energy inefficiency, its modest exports to the oil-exporting region and a reduced willingness on the part of the oil exporting economies to hold dollars â together with the Fedâs tendency to target core inflation while the ECB targets absolute inflation â explains why the dollar has tended to fall when oil rises. Goldman found that the negative correlation with between the dollar and oil holds even if oil is priced in euros or a basket of global currencies â i.e. a high real oil prices contribute to a weak dollar more than a weak dollar contributes to a high dollar price of oil.
So, a key factor is the fact that ( up until now ) global growth has been far stronger than US growth. The realization that Europe and the emerging country economies have now fallen prey to slower growth this past Friday has helped push the DOLLAR UP, and crude oil down.