COMMODITIES : Soybean Prices Tumble to Lowest Point Since Mid-May

Prices of soybean futures plunged to their lowest levels in more than six months Thursday after cracking an important resistance point.

On other markets, grain, cotton, precious metals, energy, livestock, meat and stock index futures all were lower while copper futures advanced.

Soybeans for delivery in November settled at $7.195 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, a loss of 25.75 cents from Wednesday’s final price. It was the lowest settlement price for a near-month soybean contract since May 13, when the May contract finished at $7.195.

Soybean prices had opened modestly lower in a continuation of the downward trend that has characterized the market since late last week. Analysts linked the early selling to heavy showers overnight in soybean-producing areas of South America and to the relatively slow pace of soybean sales for export.

But selling accelerated as November soybeans approached $7.40 a bushel, a price not seen since July 28, and speculators pushed the price through that important barrier.

Cotton Correction

“When you hit that level, you started seeing a lot of liquidation in the market,” said Cathy Leow, an assistant vice president of Thomson McKinnon Securities Inc.

Wheat settled 1.5 to 6.5 cents lower, with the contract for delivery in December at $4.0925 a bushel; corn was 3.25 to 5 cents lower, with December at $2.5925 a bushel; oats were 0.75 to 1.25 cents lower, with December at $2.04 a bushel, and soybeans were 17.75 to 25.75 cents lower, with November at $7.195 a bushel.

Cotton futures finished sharply lower on the New York Cotton Exchange in a technically inspired selloff. Analyst Ernest Simon of Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. said the cotton market was due for a correction.

“The fundamentals have been bearish for a long time,” he said. “We’ve got large crops throughout the world and we have a slower off-take (from existing stocks) than we had last season. In spite of that, the market has gone up and stayed up. Now it’s finally coming down,” he said.

Cotton settled 1.5 to 1.75 cents lower, with December at 53.20 cents a pound.

Copper futures rebounded strongly on New York’s Commodity Exchange after falling for four of the five previous sessions.

Analysts attributed the rise to renewed supply concerns prompted by reports of production problems at a state-owned mine in Chile and the terrorist bombing of the Peruvian Mine Owners Assn. offices in Lima, Peru.

Copper settled 1.5 to 5.3 cents higher, with December at $1.333 a pound.

Silver futures prices fell sharply for the third straight day on New York’s Commodity Exchange as the market adjusted to recent losses in the gold market and to its own bearish fundamentals, said James Steel, an analyst with Refco Inc. in New York.

Silver settled 11 cents to 11.8 cents lower, with December at $6.19 an ounce; gold was $4 to $4.50 lower, with December at $421.10 an ounce.

Energy futures weakened substantially on growing pessimism about OPEC’s ability to reach an agreement to limit crude oil output and force prices higher, analysts said.

Oil ministers of the 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries gathered Thursday in Vienna to start meetings on capping their runaway production.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil settled 38 to 91 cents lower, with December at $13.29 a barrel; heating oil was 1.50 to 1.86 cents lower, with December at 42.97 cents a gallon, and unleaded gasoline was 0.85 cent to 1.99 cents lower, with December at 45.65 cents a gallon.

Cattle futures fell sharply late in the session on the Chicago Merc, pressured by aggressive speculative selling on bearish technical signals, analysts said.

Expectations of a seasonal decline in demand for beef also contributed to the selloff.

A surge of last-minute selling drove hog futures to a sharply lower close while weakening cash markets weighed on both the hogs and the pork bellies, analysts said.

Live cattle settled 0.50 cent to 1.17 cents lower, with December at 72.67 cents a pound; feeder cattle were 0.02 to 0.75 cent lower, with November at 81.67 cents a pound; live hogs were 0.38 to 1.10 cents lower, with December at 40.70 cents a pound, and frozen pork bellies were 0.78 to 0.90 cent lower, with February at 43.65 cents a pound.

Stock index futures retreated slightly on the Merc, where the contract for December delivery of the Standard & Poor’s 500 settled 0.40 point lower at 264.65.

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