Oil prices inched lower Wednesday with a surging dollar outweighing a public commitment from Iraq’s oil minister to cut production along with OPEC. Light, sweet crude for January delivery settled down 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $47.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, fell 17 cents, or 0.3%, to $48.95 a barrel, snapping a three-session winning streak. Oil rig pump jacks, also known as thirsty birds, extract crude from the Wilmington Oil… A rising dollar makes dollar-denominated commodities like oil more expensive for traders who are based in countries using other currencies, and those commodities often fall as the dollar rises. Oil and the dollar have had an especially strong tie during large stretches of the past year, and a rising dollar has been one of the biggest factors pulling oil back from the highs it hit in mid-October. Those highs have come […]