Commodities : Tuesday, Sept. 9, 1986 : Platinum Futures Prices Fall

For the second day in a row, platinum futures prices plunged the daily $25 limit for trading Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, reversing last week’s strong rally.

The decline was due mostly to profit-taking by traders after last week’s surge, said Bette Raptopoulous, an analyst with Prudential-Bache Securities in New York. A softer U.S. dollar and weak oil prices helped pressure the gold market, she said, while silver prices advanced in trading on the New York Commodity Exchange.

Platinum prices were $23.80 to $25 lower, with the contract for delivery in September at $622.90 an ounce; gold was $1.90 to $2 lower, with September at $409.10 an ounce, and silver was 2.8 cents higher across the board, with September at 569.2 cents an ounce. In other markets, declines were seen in petroleum and wheat, while slight advances occurred in silver, cattle, pork, corn and soybeans.

Petroleum futures prices tumbled at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Concern that the American Petroleum Institute’s weekly report, released after trading Tuesday, would show an increase in heating oil stocks, sparked some selling, analysts said.