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

Grains

Soybeans gained over 4-percent today, with the November contract settling 38 cents higher at $9.64 a bushel. Speculation that demand from China for U.S. beans will increase after falling to a 13-month low was noted for some of todays action.

Argentine farmers started protesting outside congress yesterday in an attempt to pressure the government into removing increased taxes and restrictions on exports of grains and beef.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide fresh data in its October crop production report, due at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Friday. Having a fairly clear view on total crop yields, this deep into harvesting, makes this one of the most telling reports of the year.

Corn settled higher for the first time in 2-weeks, with the December contract settling 10 1/2 cents higher at $5.40 a bushel. Speculation that farmers will hoard their crop instead of selling at 10-month lows was noted for the gain. Cash prices paid for corn has declined by 47-percent over the past 4-months.

Rice fell 2.3-percent today, with the November contract settling 40 cents lower at $17.30 per hundredweight. China's grain think tank hiked its rice crop forecast this year by 1.7 million metric tons to 189 million tons.

Softs

Cotton settled modestly higher today, with the December contract settling 2 points higher a 53.58 cents a pound. Cotton was lower early in the session, before a bounce higher in the equity markets helped push cotton above water.

Coffee followed the equity markets higher into the close, with the December contract settling 35 points higher at $1.1455 a pound. Speculation that the market was oversold helped coffee settle in positive territory.

November orange juice fell 30 points to settle at 83.10 cents a pound, March sugar settled 14 points lower at 11.89 cents a pound, and

December cocoa settled $80 lower at $2,342 a metric ton.

Metals

Gold closed over $900 an ounce today, with the December contract settling $24.50 higher at $906.50 an ounce. Gold has been pushed 13-percent higher this month by both the flight-to-safety camp due to the global economic crisis, and by inflation hawks because of central banks pumping record amounts of liquidity into the markets.

In coordinating with central banks around the globe, the Fed lowered its benchmark federal funds rate. The Bank of England, European Central Bank, as well as central banks in China, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland cut rates in an attempt to stimulate the global credit markets.

December silver settled 39.2 cents higher at $11.772 an ounce, while December copper fell 17.95 cents to settle at $2.355 a pound.

Energy

Crude oil fell to the lowest level of the year today, with the November contract settling $1.11 lower at $88.95 a barrel. Rising supplies and falling demand was noted for the decline in the energy complex.

U.S. inventories of crude oil climbed by 8.1-million barrels last week, with gasoline stocks surging by 7.2-million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said today Analysts were anticipating between a build or drop of just 1 million barrels.

November heating oil fell 1.12 cents to settle at $2.4945 a gallon, while RBOB gasoline closed 3.3 cents lower at $2.0298 a gallon.

Meats

Cattle fell to a 5-month low today with October feeder cattle settling 30 points lower at 98.90 cents a pound. Falling wholesale beef demand was noted for the bearish tone in cattle futures today. October live cattle settled 95 points lower at 92.45 cents a pound.

Hog futures were mixed today, with October lean hogs settling 97 points higher at 67.87 cents a pound and February pork bellies settled trading 210 points lower at 91.25 cents a pound.