Soybeans gain on weather concerns

November soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade were up 7.75 cents to $8.73 per bushel on concerns that extreme weather conditions have hurt yields.

Some parts of the area from Iowa to Ohio have received as much as 10 inches of rain in the past week, while in some parts of the South August temperatures have averaged up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit aabove normal.

Still, farmers will harvest 2.658 billion bushels of soybeans this year.

CBOT wheat, on the other hand, dropped 4 cents to $7.38 per bushel on the possibility that more acres of wheat would be planted to take advantage of near-record high prices.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange hogs dropped 2.85 cents to 67.8 per pound in late morning trade, while October live cattle were down 3 cents to 97.8 cents per pound but feeder cattle added 50 cents to $1.18 per pound.

Crude oil prices were up in New York on Monday after early declines on new data showing that existing homes sales dropped in July for the fifth month in a row.

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery gained 51 cents to $71.60 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while October contracts for Brent crude dropped 17 cents to $70.45 per barrel.

Helping push the Nymex price up was analyst opinion that gasoline inventories in the US will likely be lower again when last week’s data is released by the US Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

Nymex September gasoline was unchanged, trading at $1.98 per gallon and October heating oil also held steady at $2.01 per gallon, while October natural gas fell 18 cents to $5.56 per million British thermal units.

Metals prices were mixed Monday in New York.

December gold was $1.30 lower to $676.20 per troy ounce on the possibility that the US dollar will hold its own against the euro.

Silver contracts for December dropped 17 cents to $11.92 per troy ounce, while October platinum added $5.30 to $1,252.30 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, copper added 1 cent to $3.36 per pound on hopes that demand will grow in the US but more gains earlier were cut on new figures showing existing home sales down again in July.

With the London Metal Exchange closed for a public holiday in the UK, trade was light.

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