Gold Dips on Global Sell-Off

Ivaylo
01 Mar, 2007
New York City

Gold futures ended Wednesday with a loss of nearly $15 an ounce, with the market still in doldrums a day after a global stock-market sell-off. The corn market advanced as the uncertainties of acreage and weather, coupled with bullish underlying fundamental outlooks, rekindled buying. Silver took its cue from gold, while platinum ended higher. Most energy futures gained with only natural gas bucking the trend.

[R]5:30AM Gold and silver decline on Wednesday, while corn gains.[/R]
March corn ended 14.25 cents higher at $4.2525 per bushel, May corn settled 11.25 cents higher at $4.3550, and December finished 10.50 cents higher at $4.20. May soybeans ended 8.75 cents higher at $7.8750 per bushel. May wheat gained 4.50 cents to $4.88 per bushel.

April gold declined $14.70 to $672.50 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May silver shed 45.5 cents to $14.235. April platinum settled up $3.10 at $1,256.40 an ounce, while June palladium closed steady at $356.60. The May copper contract lost 7.30 cents to close at $2.7520 per pound.

The front-month April crude oil contract advanced 33 cents to finish at $61.79 a barrel. Front month March gasoline gained 3.15 cents to end at $1.8476 a gallon and front month March heating oil settled up 0.11 cent at $1.7804 a gallon. April natural gas bucked the trend and finished 23.3 cents lower at $7.300 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, March Arabica coffee futures settled up 0.40 cent at $1.1770 a pound, with May up 0.20 cent at $1.1850. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for March settled down 0.14 cent at 11.31 cents a pound, with May down 0.24 cent at 10.56 cents.