The U.S. dollar index is a basket of six major world currencies stacked up against the greenback. The USDX is an important “outside market” to watch, as it’s a gauge of the amount of risk aversion in the marketplace and a gauge of the overall health of the world’s largest economy. Remember, too, that most world commodity markets see their commodities priced in U.S. dollars. Thus, the value of the dollar has an impact on the price buyers pay for those commodities in non-U.S. currency–impacting demand for those commodities. The USDX has backed down from its recent high and the near-term price uptrend for the index is now in jeopardy. Stay tuned!– Jim