Cocoa Extends Rally, Silver Declines

Ivaylo
22 Mar, 2007
New York City

U.S. cocoa futures surged Wednesday for a second day in a row on speculative buying that took prices to another contract high. Dry weather this year in Ivory Coast, the West African country that is the leading producer of cocoa beans in the world, is causing market participants to reduce their production estimates. Precious metals declined with gold bucking the trend.

[R]6:00AM Cocoa surges on Wednesday, while precious metals decline. Gold gained.[/R]
On the New York Board of Trade, the most-active May cocoa rose $30 to end at $1,894 a metric ton. In other trading, May Arabica coffee futures finished up 3.2 cents at $1.1250 a pound, reaching a 1.50 week high. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for May settled down 0.04 cent at 10.19 cents a pound

April gold gained $1 to $660 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May silver shed 5 cents to $13.32. April platinum dipped $5.30 to $1,230 an ounce, while June palladium dropped $3.30 to $352 an ounce. The most-active May copper contract declined 1.50 cents to settle at $3.0190 per pound.

The front-month May crude oil contract ended up 36 cents at $59.61 a barrel. April gasoline lost 0.72 cent to close at $1.9349 a gallon. April heating oil fell 0.41 cent at $1.6646 a gallon, while April natural gas settled up 25.0 cents at $7.160 per million British thermal units.

On the Chicago Board of Trade, corn futures ended higher in choppy trading with speculative fund buying and technical buying boosting prices. May corn settled 4.50 cents higher to $4.0975 per bushel. May soybeans ended 1.75 cents higher at $7.6650 and May wheat advanced 2.75 cents to end at $4.6550 per bushel.