The euro was lower against the U.S. dollar Wednesday as fears of a worldwide slump in markets weighed on the common currency. The euro bought $1.3188, compared with the $1.3243 it bought in New York late Tuesday. The British pound fell to $1.9552 from $1.9632 the day before. The dollar rose to 118.58 Japanese yen from 118.22 yen.

5:00AM Gold declines as Chinese stock market plunges on Tuesday.
Gold futures for April delivery closed down $2.60 at $687.20 an ounce, while May silver managed to almost recover from a decline to $14.42 an ounce to end at $14.69, down 14.2 cents. May copper lost 1.6%, or 4.5 cents, to close at $2.825 a pound. June palladium fell by $4.90 to close at $356.60 an ounce but April platinum closed $11.30 higher at $1,253.30 an ounce.

Crude oil futures closed at two-month highs. The front-month April crude contract settled up 7 cents at $61.44 a barrel, the highest for a front-month contract since Dec. 22. Front month March gasoline added 3.84 cents to end at $1.8161 a gallon. March heating oil settled up 2.31 cents at $1.7793 a gallon and March natural gas lost 17 cents to finish at $7.533 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, Arabica coffee futures closed weaker but industry buyers curbed a speculative-led slide to three-day lows. March closed down 0.55 cent at $1.1730 a pound, with May off 0.60 cent at $1.1830. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for March reached a two-month high, as they settled up 0.43 cent at 11.45 cents a pound, with May up 0.11 cent at 10.80 cents.