Corn Rallies, Gold Tumbles

Ivaylo
02 May, 2007
New York City

On the Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended higher Tuesday, boosted by speculative buying after Monday''s crop progress report revealed lower than expected corn plantings. Gold and silver finished lower. It may have been in part on slow global trading, with many countries observing holidays.Platinum and palladium ended higher.

[R]5:30AM Corn rallied Tuesday, while gold and silver settled lower.[/R]
May corn advanced 9.50 cents to $3.6750 per bushel, July settled 10 cents higher at $3.77.50, and December rallied 14 cents to $3.7850. July wheat ended 17 cents lower at $4.9550 per bushel.

June gold ended down $6.20 at $677.30 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as well as July silver which lost 20.5 cents to $13.37 an ounce. July platinum finished up $2.50 at $1,300.90 an ounce, while June palladium settled up 15 cents at $374.15 an ounce. The most-active July copper contract gained 7.80 cents to settle at $3.6345 per pound.

The June crude oil contract ended down $1.31 at $64.40 a barrel after rising to $66.15 a barrel. June heating oil closed down 1.19 cents at $1.8829 a gallon. June gasoline also finished down 1.47 cents at $2.2447 a gallon after reaching to $2.2950 a gallon. June natural gas settled down 14.5 cents at $7.718 per million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, Arabica coffee futures May ended down 1.30 cents at $1.0185 a pound, with July off 1.30 cent at $1.0485. Most-active July cocoa settled up $36 at $1,834 a metric ton. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for July gained 0.04 cent to end at 9.14 cents a pound, with October down 0.01 cent at 9.44 cents.