Copper Declines on Liquidation, Gold down

Ivaylo
11 May, 2007
New York City

Copper futures continued their decline on Thursday on liquidation, while gold and silver plunged sharply. The metals have been correcting in recent days and that pace accelerated when the dollar slipped against the other major currencies. On the Chicago Board of Trade, corn futures finished lower and near the lows of the session, pulled down by technical weakness and long liquidation ahead of Friday''s supply and demand reports.

[R]5:00AM Copper declines Thursday, while gold and silver plunge and copper dips.[/R]
The most-active July copper contract lost 11.25 cents to end at $3.5665 per pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange. June gold dipped $15.50 to end at $667 a troy ounce as the dollar advanced. July silver settled down 33 cents at $13.14. July platinum finished down $15.30 at $1,324.20 an ounce, while June palladium also slid $6.65 to close at $363.75 an ounce.

The June crude oil contract gained 26 cents to stop at $61.81 a barrel after reaching $62.50. June gasoline settled up 9.54 cents at $2.3261 a gallon. June heating oil closed up 4.67 cents to $1.8625 a gallon. June natural gas added 0.6 cents to finish at $7.726 per million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, July Arabica coffee futures ended up 0.35 cent at $1.0660 a pound. Most-active July cocoa shed $7 to settle at $1,922 a metric ton. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for July lost 0.05 cent to end lower at 9.26 cents a pound.

May corn settled down 11.50 cents at $3.4575 per bushel, July fell 11.75 cents $3.5450, and December declined 9.50 cents to $3.5650. July soybeans finished down 1.25 cents at $7.4625, and November soybeans settled 1.75 cents lower at $7.7550 a bushel.