\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" * Brent crude oil falls on economic, demand worries * Grains slump on record U.S. harvest, surprising yields * Gold settles near 11-month high; copper up for 4th day * Arabica coffee at 10-week high, sugar hits 2-month peak By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Oil and grain futures slumped for a […]<\/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-15175","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\/15175","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=15175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}* Brent crude oil falls on economic, demand worries\n * Grains slump on record U.S. harvest, surprising yields\n * Gold settles near 11-month high; copper up for 4th day\n * Arabica coffee at 10-week high, sugar hits 2-month peak\n\n\n By Barani Krishnan\n NEW YORK, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Oil and grain futures slumped\nfor a second day on Tuesday as a weak economic outlook pressured\nenergy prices and a record-fast U.S. harvest and\nbetter-than-expected crop yields weighed on agricultural\nmarkets.\n The dollar's retreat from last week's three-week high,\nlimited to an extent the downside for commodities. Since raw\nmaterials are mostly traded in dollars, a weakening of the\ncurrency usually triggers upward adjustments in price. \n Metals markets and soft commodities, such as arabica coffee\nand raw sugar, bucked the trend in oil and grains.\n The spot price of gold, edged higher, settling near\nMonday's 11-month peak. Futures of the precious metal, traded in\nNew York, fell in light consolidation trade. \n Copper crept higher for a fourth day of gains as the\ndollar fell and funds bought in, although the market's upside\nwas capped by Europe's debt crisis. \n \"We really see no underlying reason behind their strength\nother than possible spillover strength still coming in from\nyesterday's session,\" Edward Meir, analyst at Intl FC Stone,\nsaid in a commentary on copper futures.\n Concerns over the euro zone heightened after Spain's Prime\nMinister Mariano Rajoy denied a Reuters story quoting European\nofficials as saying that Madrid was ready to request a bailout\nfor its public finances as early as next weekend, but Germany\nhad signaled that it should hold off. \n Rajoy said a request for European aid was not imminent. A\nrequest for a bailout is viewed as positive for Spain and the\neuro because it would trigger purchases of Spanish debt by the\nEuropean Central Bank that could lower Madrid's borrowing\ncosts.\n Among soft commodities, arabica coffee soared nearly\n4 percent to a 10-week high on Tuesday, on heavy short-covering\nprompted by concerns of dry weather in top grower Brazil. Raw\nsugar neared a two-month high. \n Stocks on Wall Street were little changed amid uncertainty\nabout whether Spain will soon ask the euro zone for support and\nworries that third-quarter U.S. earnings will disappoint. \n The euro zone aside, investors are worried about slowing\nglobal economic activity this year, which has curbed fuel demand\ngrowth in Asia, Europe and the United States.\n Global factory data released on Monday also showed euro zone\nfactories suffering their worst quarter since early 2009, and\nNo. 2 economy China losing steam. \n Benchmark Brent crude oil, traded in London, settled\ndown 62 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $111.57 a barrel. U.S. crude\n closed New York trade down 59 cents, or 0.6 percent at\n$91.89.\n The downside in oil has so far been limited by constraints\nin production of Brent crude and the simmering dispute between\nthe West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.\n \"Economic data is bearish for oil and the immediate risk for\nprices is to the downside,\" said Tamas Varga, an oil analyst at\nbrokers PVM Oil Associates in London.\n \"But geopolitics is supporting the market. It may be very\nunlikely, but investors are still worried there could be a war\nin the Middle East. And, as long as stories about Iranian\nnuclear operations keep coming, those worries are not going to\ngo away.\"\n On the agricultural front, soybean futures traded in\nChicago slid nearly 2 percent to a three-month low.\n Corn futures were mixed as pressure from a rapid\nharvest and spillover from lower soybeans was offset by thin\nstocks and slightly improved demand after the recent drop in\nprices. \n Wheat fell for the sixth time in seven sessions on\nforecasts for rain in the drought-parched U.S. Plains, which was\nexpected to boost winter wheat planting.\n A two-year low in prices of palm oil in top producing\ncountry Malaysia was also pressuring U.S. soybean oil and other\nrival vegetable oils, analysts said. \n \"The extreme weakness in the Malaysian palm oil market is\ncasting a pall across oilseeds of all shapes and sizes. Combine\nthat with our (U.S. soybean) harvest moving along at a record\nclip and it's not creating an environment that's bullish for\nprices,\" said Sterling Smith, futures specialist with Citigroup.\n \"Fund managers are also still a little apprehensive about\nwhere to buy as the technicals continue to break down. That\nweakness is spreading into the corn and the wheat,\" he said.\n \n Prices at 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) \n LAST\/ NET PCT YTD\n CLOSE CHG CHG CHG\n US crude 91.71 -0.77 -0.8% -7.2%\n Brent crude 111.32 -0.87 -0.8% 3.7%\n Natural gas 3.531 0.051 1.5% 18.1%\n \n US gold 1775.60 -7.70 -0.4% 13.3%\n Gold 1775.09 1.30 0.1% 13.5%\n US Copper 380.10 1.55 0.4% 10.6%\n LME Copper 8325.50 26.00 0.3% 9.5%\n Dollar 79.737 -0.087 -0.1% -0.5%\n \n \n US corn 759.75 -0.25 0.0% 17.5%\n US soybeans 1533.25 -29.75 -1.9% 27.9%\n US wheat 883.00 -13.00 -1.5% 35.3%\n \n US Coffee 183.65 5.60 3.1% -19.5%\n US Cocoa 2475.00 25.00 1.0% 17.4%\n US Sugar 21.59 0.46 2.2% -7.1%\n \n US silver 34.669 -0.283 -0.8% 24.2%\n US platinum 1685.20 1.40 0.1% 20.0%\n US palladium 654.20 8.60 1.3% -0.3%<\/pre>\n