Commodities Futures Prices Fall Broadly

The Associated Press

Commodities futures closed lower across the board Friday, bringing the price of gold down a day after hitting its highest level in nine months.

Metals, most energy prices and "soft" commodities like coffee and cocoa fell.

Gold for December delivery gave up $15.70 to $1,780.80 an ounce. It had risen to the highest level since late February on Thursday.

Coffee prices slumped 4 percent, giving up 6.95 cents to settle at $1.6810 per pound.

Jack Scoville, vice president Price Futures Group, said he was seeing widespread selling from speculative investors, but relatively little from producers. The fact that harvests were coming in for grain crops was also putting pressure on those contracts, Scoville said.

In other metals trading, December silver fell 52.9 cents to finish at $34.572 per ounce. December palladium fell $11.55 to $663.20 per ounce. January platinum lost $17.90 to $1,707.20 per ounce. December copper edged down 0.8 cent to $3.778 per pound.

December wheat fell 11.75 cents to $8.5750 per bushel, December corn fell 9 cents to $7.48 per bushel and November soybeans ended unchanged at $15.515 per bushel.

Crude oil and other energy contracts also fell. Oil lost $1.83 to $89.88 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Natural gas gave up a penny to end at $3.396 per 1,000 cubic feet, heating oil fell 3.25 cents to $3.1559 per gallon and wholesale gasoline gained 0.96 cent to settle at $2.9525 per gallon.

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