Nightly Recap of the Metals, Energy, Grains, Meats, and Softs Market

Energy

Crude oil fell to a 7-month low today, with the October contract settling $5.47 lower at $95.71 a barrel. Continual risk de-leveraging, Hurricane Ike's apparent failure to cause much damage in the Gulf, and expectations that the falling global economy will continue to curb demand was noted for the 5.4-percent today.

Nearly all of the oil production in the Gulf has been shut-in, as well as nearly 94-percent of natural-gas production, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said in a report issued Monday.

Speculative, or non-commercial, natural gas long position were cut by 2,690 contracts and increased their short positions by 9,067 contracts, resulting in a net short position of 172,833 contracts, 11,757 above last week's total.

October RBOB gasoline settled 20.8 cents lower at $2.5614 a gallon, October heating oil closed 14.8 cents lower at $2.7912 a gallon, and October natural gas settled nearly unchanged at $7.374 per million British thermal units.

Grains

Corn closed slightly lower today, with the December contract settling 1 1/4 cents lower at $5.62 a bushel. Weather forecasts for the next 10 days in the Corn Belt are calling for dry warm conditions that are seen as favorable to corn after severe rains have drenched the region.

Wheat closed 1-percent higher on the session, with the December contract settling 7 3/4 cents higher at $7.27 a bushel. Wheat bounced higher on short covering after getting whacked by 30-percent in the past 3 weeks.

Soybeans fell 2-percent today, with the November contract settling 23 cents lower at $11.79 a bushel. Falling energy prices combined with speculation that demand will fall was noted for soybeans decline to a fresh 5-month low today. December soy-meal settled $1.30 higher at $335.80 a short ton, and December soy-oil closed 143 points lower at 46.56 cents a pound.

November rice closed 4 1/2 cents lower at $19.03 1/2 per hundredweight, and December oats settled 5 1/4 cents higher at $3.39 3/4 a bushel.

Softs

Cotton finished nearly 4-percent today, with the December contract settling 239 points lower at 62.13 cents a pound. Spill-over pressure from commodity liquidation, combined with speculation that global demand will decline was noted for the fall in cotton today.

Sugar fell to a fresh 3-month low today, with the October contract settling 22 points lower at 12.14 cents a pound. Falling energy prices and strength in the US dollar was noted for the decline in sugar today.

Cocoa finished higher for the first time in 6 sessions, with the December contract gaining $47 to close at $2,607 a metric ton. Cocoa started the session lower, but a reversal in the US dollar mid-day sent cocoa higher into the close.

Coffee slid to its lowest level in a month, with the December contract settling 0.15 cent lower at $1.3905 a pound.

Meats

Hogs were flying today, with October lean hogs closing 125 points higher at 67.35 cents a pound. Lower cash hog prices were not enough to keep the shorts from covering, pushing the market nearly 2-percent higher today. February pork bellies closed 185 points higher at 88.15 cents.

Cattle closed mixed to higher Monday, with December live cattle settling 155 points higher 105.32 cents a pound. A tug-a-war between sluggish demand and oversold technical conditions had cattle mixed on the session. October feeder cattle settled 10 points lower at 108.82 cents.

Metals

Gold jumped nearly 3-percent today, with the December contract settling $22.50 higher at $787 an ounce. Gold regained some of its sparkle today with investors jumping in as an attempt to find some safety. The US equity markets encountered there steepest decline since September 11, 2001.

Lehman Brothers chapter 11 filing listed the most debt ever, at more than $613 billion. Investment bank Merrill Lynch, punished by $52.2 billion in losses and write-downs related to subprime-mortgage securities, agreed to a $50 billion takeover by Bank of America Corp.

December silver settled 34 cents higher at $11.135 an ounce, October platinum futures fell $34.30 to settle at $1,176.20 an ounce, and December palladium settled $4.80 lower at $238 an ounce.