Wheat Rallies, Gold Climbs

Ivaylo
06 Apr, 2007
New York City

Trading was light before the long Easter weekend. Wheat futures rallied Thursday on worries that freezing weather will harm the developing winter wheat crop during a cold snap over the next several days. Corn futures followed wheat higher Thursday. In precious metals trading on the Nymex, gold and silver were supported by short covering before the long weekend, as well as the dollar''s weakness against the euro.

[R]5:00AM Wheat and corn rally, gold and silver advance on short covering.[/R]
CBOT May wheat ended 13.75 cents higher at $4.45 a bushel, while May corn advanced 6.75 cents to close at $3.66 a bushel. June gold closed $2 stronger at $679.40 a troy ounce, and May silver added 12 cents to finish at $13.74 an ounce. July platinum rose $7 to settle at $1,265.90 an ounce, while June palladium advanced $2.25 to finish at $356.40 an ounce. In trading of base metals, the most-active May copper fell 1.05 cents on profit-taking to end at $3.3770 per pound.

In Nymex energy trading, crude oil futures settled slightly lower. The front-month May crude oil settled 10 cents, or 0.2%, lower at $64.28 a barrel. While front-month May gasoline contracts rose 2.34 cents, or 1.1%, to close at $2.1288 a gallon, May heating oil fell 0.35 cents to finish at $1.8609 a gallon. Natural gas for May delivery rose 9.2 cents on position squaring and closed at $7.607 per million British thermal units.

Arabica coffee futures closed slightly higher as May-July rollovers dominated before notices start on April 20. May coffee ended 0.35 cents higher at $1.1090 a pound, and July coffee finished 0.30 cents stronger at $1.1375 a pound.