AP News, May 14th, 2007
Selling undercut both base metals and precious metals futures Monday, leaving copper and platinum with sizable price declines.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, copper was hit by selling due to technical factors, analysts said. The most active July copper contract settled 10.7 cents lower at $3.4970 per pound.
"We're seeing a good bit of long liquidation and good amount of technical selling, continuing a correction from the recent highs," said Dave Meger, senior metals analyst with Alaron Trading. The July futures hit a life-of-contract high of $3.8070 on May 4.
Meanwhile, July platinum fell $12.40 to $1,329.30 an ounce. Platinum was hurt by profit-taking by funds, as well as Monday's Johnson Matthey supply report, some market participants said.
The report from the fabricator said platinum was effectively in balance during 2006, with a nominal surplus of 10,000 ounces. However, this ended a string of seven straight years of deficits. Global supply was estimated at 6.785 million ounces after expansion in South African output, while demand rose to 6.775 million. The platinum market is expected to move into further surplus in 2007, assuming expected mine expansion comes about, Johnson Matthey said.
The other precious metals also settled lower, with June gold down $2.20 to $670.10 an ounce, July silver off 7 cents at $13.235 an ounce, and June palladium down $7.95 to $360.70 an ounce.
In Nymex energy trading, nearby crude futures shed early gains and ended modestly higher as gasoline futures sold off and Chevron Corp. said it will restore much of its recently shut Nigerian production.
The June crude contract rose 9 cents to $62.46 a barrel after rallying as high as $63.07 a barrel. The contract expires next week. The more active July contract ended 23 cents lower at $63.89 a barrel.
June gasoline futures slid 5.09 cents to settle at $2.3012 a gallon, and June heating oil slipped 1.55 cents to finish at $1.8668 a gallon.
Natural gas for June delivery were helped by fund buying and settled 5.3 cents higher at $7.952 a million British thermal units Monday, after hitting a high of $8.112 in earlier trading.
On the Chicago Board of Trade, soybean futures ended higher, continuing Friday's bullish theme with concerns over tightening projected new-crop stocks, and supportive technical factors attracting speculative buyers.
July soybeans settled 8.75 cents higher at $7.7050 a bushel, and November soybeans finished 8.75 cents stronger at $7.9950 a bushel. July soymeal settled $4.70 higher at $206.50 per short ton. July soyoil ended 0.10 cents higher at 34.49 cents a pound.
Wheat futures finished with modest gains Monday, retracing strong early advances amid nervousness ahead of the release of a weekly crop progress report, analysts said.
CBOT July wheat ended 3.5 cents higher at $4.9650 per bushel, Kansas City Board of Trade July wheat rose 3.75 cents to $4.8050 a bushel, and Minneapolis Grain Exchange July wheat settled 2.25 cents higher at $5.2125 a bushel.
However, corn futures ended lower, backpedaling off Friday's strong gains on profit taking amid strong weekend planting progress, analysts said. On Friday, corn finished sharply higher on speculative buying, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported new crop ending stocks below estimates.
This session, July corn ended 6 cents lower at $3.6325 a bushel, and December corn finished 3.5 cents lower at $3.71 a bushel. Favorable weekend weather conditions were seen promoting a rapid planting pace across the central U.S., as farmers aggressively returned to fieldwork after being idled by rains earlier in the week in the western Midwest, analyst said.
On the New York Board of Trade, most-active July cotton fell 1.19 cents to settle at 46.92 cents a pound. Cotton was hurt by speculator and fund sales, along with bearish options trades, brokers and analysts said.
However, coffee was helped by technical buying that left the July contracts 1.15 cents higher at $1.0685 a pound and the September contracts 1.20 cents stronger at $1.0970 a pound.
Cocoa futures fell on speculative sales and origin pressure, although trade buying took prices off their lows ahead of the close, brokers said. Most-active July cocoa fell $9 to settle at $1,926 a metric ton _ up from the $1,908 a ton session low.
Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports dropped to 2-week lows as trade houses and funds sold before trade buying blunted the retreat. July sugar settled 0.18 cents lower at 9.11 cents a pound, while October sugar closed 0.14 cents weaker at 9.41 cents a pound.
