Corn Dips, Gold Bounces back

Ivaylo
03 Apr, 2007
New York City

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures settled sharply lower Monday, following on a sell-off due to a plantings report Friday, but recovered from the lows of the day. In precious metals trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures bounced from liquidation pressure late Monday to post a gain, with traders citing comments from the Bush administration that it was looking into reports of an American said to be missing in Iran.

[R]5:00AM Corn plummeted, while gold futures bounced back on Monday.[/R]
May corn ended 19.75 cents lower at $3.5475 per bushel, July fell 19 cents to $3.6650 a bushel, and December dropped 14 cents to $3.6950 a bushel. June gold advanced $2.50 to finish at $671.50 a troy ounce, but May silver shed 10 cents to settle at $13.35 an ounce. July platinum lost $5.80 to close at $1,249 an ounce, while June palladium dipped $3.55 to end at $353.70 an ounce. In copper trading, May contract gained 3.30 cents to settle at $3.1790 per pound.

May crude oil added 7 cents to end higher at $65.94 a barrel, but well below the high of $66.69. May gasoline finished 1.52 cents lower at $2.0428 a gallon, while May heating oil futures closed 1.44 cents lower at $1.8625 a gallon. Natural gas for May delivery settled 5.9 cents lower at $7.671 per million British thermal units.

Arabica coffee futures also slipped, canceling out early gains as funds and origins sold. May coffee closed 0.65 cents lower at $1.0860 a pound, with July off 0.65 cents to finish at $1.1155 a pound. On the New York Board of Trade, futures on raw sugar in foreign ports sank to 1.5-year lows. May sugar settled 0.18 cents lower at 9.70 cents a pound, with July off 0.13 cents to finish at 9.87 cents a pound.