All that glitters isn’t gold. On Wednesday, it was black gold as well. Crude oil and gold hit record highs, in part reflecting the depreciation of the dollar. Crude crossed the $100 mark for the first time, with a barrel in New York ending at $99.62, a record close that was up $3.64 on the day. While swelling economies in China and India have increased global demand for oil and consequently put pressure on prices in the past year, many are attributing the record high reached on Wednesday to violence in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer. On Tuesday, armed rebels invaded Port Harcourt, the center of Nigeria’s oil industry. The insurgents attacked two police stations and raided the lobby of a major hotel. Analyst John Gerdes of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey said that while the Nigerian violence has not impacted the oil flow out of the country, it as ‘reignited supply concerns as militant attacks have reduced Nigeria’s crude output by roughly 20.0% since 2006.’ While international tumult may have contributed to Wednesday’s record high, the weakness of the greenback has made energy seem signicantly more expensive in dollar terms. While the price of oil rose 38.6% in […]