8/28/2008 13:54
Corn Prices Continue To Tumble
[img]http://fxopen.com/services/ImageProxy.ashx?request=aHR0cDovLzY3LjI5LjE3Ni4xNTAvTkVXUy9OTkVXUy9kb2N1bWVudHMvcGljdHVyZXMvY29ybi1BM0UuanBn[/img]Corn edged lower on Thursday in U.S. trading and added to its recent slide. October-dated corn contracts traded at $5.69, down 8.5 cents on the session. The grain has been trending down for about a week, coming away from a monthly high.
The Department of Agriculture released its weekly export sales data on Thursday. Corn sales were reported at 846,800 metric tons, which was above trade expectations of 400,000 to 800,000 MT. Net sales of 303,000 MT for the current marketing year were up 54 percent from last week's figures.
Other agriculture stocks also declined. Soybeans fell 25 cents to $13.23 a bushel, wheat declined 13.6 cents to $7.89 a bushel and cotton dropped 0.75 cent a bushel to 67.70 cents a pound.
Crude prices turned lower on Thursday morning after earlier topping $120 a barrel as the International Energy Agency has pledged to release additional oil supplies in the event of storm damage. Light sweet crude for October delivery moved to $115.84, down $2.31 on the session. Oil hit as high as $120.50 amid concerns Tropical Storm Gustav could cause problems in the Gulf of Mexico's oil region.
Crude oil gained for a third straight session on Wednesday, closing up $1.88 on the session. Traders considered the Department of Energy's mixed bag inventory report. Crude oil inventories decreased by about 170,000 barrels in the week ended Aug. 24. Analysts were expecting to see a build of about 1 million barrels. At 305.8 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are in the middle of the average range for this time of year.
On the economic front in the U.S., a Department of Commerce report showed that gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 3.3 percent in the second quarter compared to the advance estimate of 1.9 percent growth. Economists had been expecting GDP growth for the quarter to be revised up to 2.7 percent.
Also Thursday morning, the Department of Labor released its report on initial jobless claims in the week ended August 23rd, showing that jobless claims fell to 425,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 435,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to fall to 425,000 from the 432,000 originally reported for the previous week. Copyright(c) 2008 RealTimeTraders.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved