Palladium prices fell on Wednesday, dropping below the $2,000 barrier, despite the US dollar's slight drop against most of its peers.

This came amid concerns over the weak global supply of industrial metals such as platinum, palladium and nickel, while demand from the steel industry continues to increase, in addition to its usage in the manufacturing of electric car batteries.

Palladium is heavily used in the manufacturing of car components that reduce polluting emissions, and also in the manufacturing of electric cars, and demand has increased in recent years due to efforts to combat the global climate change.

The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies 0.2% to 93.7 points as of 13:58 GMT, after hitting a high of 94.01 points and a low of 93.7 points.

Palladium December futures fell 1.4% to $1,976.5 an ounce as of 13:58 GMT.

The Energy Information Administration reported today that the US crude inventories rose 4.3 million barrels to 430.8 million barrels during the past week, while analysts forecast a drop by 100K barrels.

Gasoline stocks fell 2 million barrels to 215.7 million barrels, and the distillate stocks fell 400K barrels to 125 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute reported yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 2.3 million barrels during the same period.

The main US stock indices opened higher on Wednesday, to continue the record-breaking rally, after the release of strong quarterly business reports for the third quarter.

Alphabet, the parent company of the search engine Google and Microsoft reported yesterday strong profits and revenues in the third quarter, thanks to the cloud services and online advertising.

This came after Facebook, Tesla and Netflix also reported profits and revenues that topped analysts' expectations.

Data showed that the US durable goods orders index fell 0.4% in September, better than forecasts of a drop by 1.1%, and the core reading rose 0.4% in September, on par with forecasts.

The US goods trade balance recorded a deficit of $96.3 billion last month, more than forecasts of $88.2 billion.

As for stocks, Dow Jones rose 0.2% or 70 points to 35,820 as of 14:13 GMT, and S&P 500 rose 0.1% or 5 point to 4,580, while Nasdaq rose 0.2% or 35 points to 15,270.

Oil prices continued to fall as the US market opened on Wednesday, with the US crude pulling back from its 7-year high, while Brent is headed toward its first daily loss in 4 days, weighed down by a build in US crude inventories, according to the American Petroleum Institute's preliminary data, and ahead of the Energy Information Administration's official report later today.

US crude fell 1.4% to $83.14 a barrel, after opening at $84.34, and hit a high at $84.48, and Brent crude fell 1% to $85.16 a barrel, after opening at $86.00, and hit a low at $86.26.

The US crude gained 0.9% yesterday, and Brent crude rose 0.25%, in the third straight daily gain.

The American Petroleum Institute reported in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 2.3 million barrels to 434.5 million barrels during the week ending October 22, which is the highest level since the week ending August 20, while analysts forecast a rise by 1.9 million barrels.

The US Energy Information Administration's official data will be released later today, amid forecasts for inventories to rise by 2 million barrels.

While the US output fell 100,000 barrels last week, with the total at 11.3 million barrels per day.