Commodities Retreat On Strong Dollar (USO, UNG, GLD, SLV, CHK, TOT, MMR, REX)

Commodities retreated slightly on Tuesday after rising in the previous trading session as the dollar weigh following data showed U.S. consumer confidence dipped in March.Today, data showed that U.S. home prices continued to slid for the fifth consecutive month and hit 9 years low.The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index fell 0.8% in the month of January. The three-month rolling index includes transactions that took place from November to January.
Gold was down 0.10% to $1683 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The yellow metal was up over 1.40% in yesterday’s session.Copper for May delivery was trading almost flat at $3.88 a pound. May silver futures fell 05 cents, or 0.20%, at $32.71 an ounce.

The dollar Index bounced back slightly to 79.08 from 79.4278.93 on Monday.
Crude oil slipped 0.30% to $106.75 despite South Sudan said the Sudanese air force bombed key oil fields in a cross-border raid o n Tuesday, adding to global production fears.

In the energy space, the front-month April Natural gas futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange, fell 4 cents at $2.19 per million British thermal units on supplies concern.May gasoline fell 2 cents, or 0.60%, to $3.40 a gallon. May heating-oil slid 2 cents, or 0.2%, to $3.23 per gallon.On Monday, the entire commodities pack jumped sharply U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled that the central bank would continue to provide support to boost the U.S. economy, raising the possibility of another QE.

United States Oil Fund LP (ETF)(NYSEARCA:USO) was down 0.34% at $40.63, United States Natural Gas Fund, LP(NYSEARCA:UNG) lost 0.18 (-1.04%) to $17.18. SPDR Gold Trust (ETF)(NYSEARCA:GLD) is down 0.43% to $163.70, iShares Silver Trust (ETF)(NYSEARCA:SLV) fell over 0.50% to $31.78.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation(NYSE:CHK) rose 0.21% to $24.26 after the company said it now expects to sell its assets in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico entirely, rather than find a joint venture partner as it had initially said.
TOTAL S.A. (ADR)(NYSE:TOT) slumped about 6% after senior manager says the firm is looking at two main options to try to stop the North Sea gas leak at its abandoned Elgin platform: drilling a relief well, which could take six months, or the faster but riskier alternative of sending in engineers to "kill" the leak.
Mcmoran Exploration Co(NYSE:MMR) lost 16.56% after its Davy Jones update. MMR was forced to "move up the hole" after a perforating gun malfunctioned, which Jefferies says, "highlights once again the engineering risks of the ultra-deep play."
Rex American Resources Corp.(NYSE:REX) added marginally after analyst at CapitalOne upgraded the stock ) to Add from Neutral on a valuation call and raised the price target by $1 to $14.