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\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" * Investors stay sharp on dreary US economy, Europe woes * Brent crude down nearly 2 pct, off 4 pct on week * Soybeans hit one-month low, down 6 pct in 2-day rout * Platinum dives as striking S.African miners accept new pay * Copper steadies but outlook remains weak By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}* Investors stay sharp on dreary US economy, Europe woes\n * Brent crude down nearly 2 pct, off 4 pct on week\n * Soybeans hit one-month low, down 6 pct in 2-day rout\n * Platinum dives as striking S.African miners accept new pay\n * Copper steadies but outlook remains weak\n\n By Barani Krishnan\n NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Commodities slumped on Tuesday\nfor a second day as nagging economic problems in the United\nStates and Europe made investors cautious about the demand\noutlook for oil, metals and crops at prices that had spiked on\nstimulus efforts by central banks.\n Euphoria over the Federal Reserve's enlarged $40-billion\nper-month bond-buying program -- announced last Thursday -- had\nfueled a run-up in many commodity markets. But sentiment has\nfizzled in the absence of fresh evidence of U.S. recovery. \n In the euro zone, pressure grew on Spain to request aid and\ntest a European Central Bank bond-buying program. The dollar\n jumped against the euro, further weighing on\ncommodities priced in the U.S. currency. \n Crude oil fell nearly 2 percent, down more than 4 percent so\nfar this week after Monday's heavy liquidation. \n Soybeans showed a 6 percent decline for the week-to-date.\n Copper steadied after Monday's selloff, dipping slightly in\nNew York and edging higher in London. But outlook for the No. 1\nbase metal remained weak. \n \"With the Fed's 'easing news' behind us, investors will now\nhave to refocus on the dreary economic landscape and the\nunresolved debt situation still simmering in Europe,\" said\nEdward Meir, an analyst for base metals at INTL FCStone.\n \"Unfortunately, neither of these will be fixed with by 'easy\nmoney', particularly in the case for a hoped-for economic\nrebound in the U.S. where the Fed's action needs time to play\nout.\"\n Among precious metals, platinum fell 2 percent, as\nstriking platinum miners at South Africa's Lonmin mine\naccepted a pay offer that could have them returning to work on\nThursday. \n The bellwether 19-commodity Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB\nindex fell 1 percent, adding to Monday's 2 percent\ndecline and marking its sharpest two-day slide since June.\n Oil was also pressured by No. 1 producer Saudi Arabia's move\nto pump around 10 million barrels per day and bring prices of\nbenchmark Brent crude closer to $100 per barrel, according to a\nsenior Gulf source.\n Brent settled at $112.03 per barrel, off Friday's\n4-month high of nearly $118. \n A majority of oil producers in OPEC want oil prices around\n$100 per barrel and would boost production over the next few\nmonths, the Gulf source said. \n \"Unless there is a major supply disruption in the Middle\nEast, there is nothing to push it higher,\" said analyst Andrey\nKryuchenkov at VTB Capital. \"Saudi will seek to drive it closer\nto $100 and everyone knows it.\" \n Soybean prices hit a one-month low as euphoria over the Fed\nstimulus faded, and U.S. harvest of the crop advanced at a\nrecord pace despite worries earlier of damage from a disastrous\ndrought. \n \"There has been a convergence of negative news,\" Don Roose,\npresident of U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines, Iowa, said,\nreferring to soy.\n Better-than-expected soy yields, concern that demand from\ntop soy importer China was set to wane and a surge in the\nslaughter of U.S. hogs -- one of the main consumers of soy feed\n-- added to the market's bearishness.\n Soybeans settled down 1.8 percent at $16.40 per bushel\nin Chicago trade, after touching $16.30-1\/2, a low since Aug 17.\nThe contract had scaled record highs above $17.55 earlier this\nmonth as hot weather wilted crops in the U.S. Midwest farm belt.\n Soybeans aside, corn also saw extended pressure from\nMonday's selloff, falling 1.7 percent in the latest session.\nWheat fell nearly 1 percent. \n \n Prices at 4:41 p.m. EDT (2040 GMT) \n LAST\/ NET PCT YTD\n CLOSE CHG CHG CHG\n US crude 95.46 -1.16 -1.2% -3.4%\n Brent crude 111.81 -1.98 -1.7% 4.1%\n Natural gas 2.773 -0.092 -3.2% -7.2%\n \n US gold 1771.20 0.60 0.0% 13.0%\n Gold 1770.49 9.54 0.5% 13.2%\n US Copper 380.25 -0.75 -0.2% 10.7%\n LME Copper 8319.00 18.00 0.2% 9.5%\n Dollar 79.188 0.185 0.2% -1.2%\n CRB 311.560 -2.900 -0.9% 2.1%\n \n US corn 744.00 -8.50 -1.1% 15.1%\n US soybeans 1639.25 -30.75 -1.8% 36.8%\n US wheat 875.75 -14.50 -1.6% 34.2%\n \n US Coffee 177.50 1.85 1.1% -22.2%\n US Cocoa 2532.00 -52.00 -2.0% 20.1%\n US Sugar 19.44 -0.59 -2.9% -16.3%\n \n US silver 34.644 0.346 1.0% 24.1%\n US platinum 1635.30 -36.30 -2.2% 16.4%\n US palladium 666.85 -21.75 -3.2% 1.6%<\/pre>\n