Commodities Thursday, Sept. 4, 1986 : Treasury Bond Futures Off

A report that major industrial nations had scheduled a meeting to discuss lowering interest rates sent a flurry through financial futures markets that betrayed confusion over the direction of the economy.

Treasury bond futures went 20/32 point higher on the report, but then lost all the gain and then some on a denial by the Federal Reserve Board.

Gold and platinum again advanced strongly and oil prices moved a little higher.

Analysts said the interest rate futures rallied and foreign currencies went into a decline on a report in Japan that there was to be a meeting this weekend of finance ministers from the Group of Five countries--the United States, Britain, France, West Germany and Japan.

This was denied by a spokesman for the Federal Reserve after the close of currency trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange but before Treasury bonds ended their session at the Chicago Board of Trade.

The purported meeting supposedly was to focus on a coordinated round of interest rate reductions.