Corn, soybeans set records before easing

NEW YORK — Corn and soybean prices pushed deeper into record territory before easing Friday as rain again soaked the Midwest and traders locked in profits ahead of a planting report next week.

The early gains followed a sharp run-up in commodities prices over the previous two days and came as oil prices touched a new high near $143 a barrel.

Strong downpours continued to hammer key growing regions in a number of Midwestern states, including Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

Investors are eagerly awaiting a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday that will show how many acres of each type of crop have been planted.

Elaine Kub, a commodities analyst at DTNin Omaha, Neb., predicted that report will likely lead to a volatile trading session Monday. That would be a contrast to Friday, when prices traded in a relatively narrow band after coming off early highs.

"The markets want to move slowly and in steps to see how these prices affect demand," Kub said. "There's a lot of complexity going on. ... You see a lot of people just squaring up their positions and being a little cautious today."

Corn for December delivery nudged the all-time high up a penny to $7.96 bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade before pulling back to trade at $7.875, down half a cent.

Soybeans for November delivery hit a record of $15.77 a bushel on the CBOT before edging back to $15.66, up 4.5 cents.

Wheat prices pulled back, with the September contract dropping 11.75 cents to $9.31 a bushel on the CBOT.

Investors have plowed more money into commodities since the Federal Reserve opted to hold interest rates steady earlier in the week. With a rate increase seen as unlikely in the short-term, traders are concerned that the dollar might continue to slide, prompting them to snatch up commodities as a hedge against inflation.

The tumbling stock market is also driving more cash into hard commodities such as grains and oil. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average sank to its lowest level since September 2006.

Light, sweet crude oil rose as high as $142.99 on the New York Mercantile Exchange before pulling back to trade up $1.80 at $141.44 a barrel.

"Financial flows were leaving the equity markets," Oliver Jakob, an analyst at Petromatrix in Switzerland said in a daily research report. "In a repeat of the patterns seen early in the year, when money has no where to go, it is parked into commodities as it is one of the few investment instruments that actually rises the more money you pour into it."

Elsewhere on the Nymex, precious metals were mixed. Gold for August delivery jumped rose 80 cents to $915.90 on the Nymex.

July silver rose 7 cents to $17.195 an ounce on the Nymex, while July copper fell 2 cents to $3.81 a pound.