Corn Dips, Gold Gains

Ivaylo
26 Feb, 2007
New York City

Corn futures ended lower Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade, while soybean futures finished in negative territory under pressure from commodity fund selling and profit-taking. Gold and silver futures extended their recent gains as follow-through buying from funds continued. Momentum-based buying continued in copper futures helping send copper to its highest level since the first trading day of the year.

[R]5:30AM Corn and soybean sank, while gold and silver gained on Friday.[/R]
March corn ended 4.25 cents lower at $4.3025 per bushel, while March soybeans settled down 5.50 cents at $7.7825 per bushel. March wheat fell 5.25 cents to $4.8425 per bushel.

April gold gained $3.70 to end at $686.70 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. March silver settled up 34.5 cents at $14.595 an ounce. April platinum settled up $7.60 at $1,237.60 an ounce, while March palladium settled up $7.40 at $358.10 an ounce. The March copper contract added 7.40 cents to finish at $2.8400 per pound.

The front-month April crude oil settled up 19 cents at $61.14 a barrel after rallying to $61.80 a barrel, the highest level since Dec. 26. March gasoline settled up 0.83 cent at $1.7631 a gallon. March heating oil advanced 2.55 cents at $1.7505 a gallon. March natural gas settled up 2.8 cents at $7.755 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, May Arabica coffee futures closed unchanged at $1.2015 a pound, with July steady at $1.2290. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for March declined 0.13 cent to end at 10.97 cents a pound, with May off 0.04 cent at 10.64 cents.