Commodity Blog

Archive for July 23rd, 2009

Hershey Co. speculation that demand will rise with reviving economy caused cocoa to go up today. The company reports a 5.9 percent increase in second-quarter sales to $1.171 billion thus making Hershey to rise to the highest since September on the New York Stock Exchange. September futures for cocoa went up $125 (4.5 percent) to $2,877/metric ton as of 10:55 on ICE Futures  U. S. in New York.

Speculation about increasing demand for grain from the the world’s biggest shipper, the U.S., causes wheat prices go up today. Japan bought 87,000 tons from the U.S. and South Korea’s biggest feed-grain buyer, Nonghyup Feed Inc., reported it is seeking 55,000 tons. September futures for wheat gained $0.0475 (0.9 percent) to $5.2675/bushel by 11:21 on CBoT.

Dollar falls causing gold to go up to five-week high today making it a good alternative investment. «There are good reasons to believe the dollar should weaken, and in that case, gold will be a beneficiary, but it’s not necessarily going to occur overnight» reports Patrick Chidley, an analyst at Barnard Jacobs Mellet LLC. August futures for gold gained $2.50 (0.3 percent) to $955.80 at 11:30 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Latest commodity prices (ICE, NYMEX, CME) as of 16:38 GMT:

Oil (Brent) — $69.46
Gold — $956.22
Silver — $13.82
Platinum — $1,175.81
Palladium — $256.00
Copper — $5,511.00
Aluminium — $80.00
Nickel — $16,400.00
Zinc — $1682.00
Cocoa — $2,878.00
Sugar — $18.29
Corn — $325.00
Soybean — $34.67