Commodities : Grain Futures Prices Slump

Grain prices slumped lower Monday under what anaylsts said was the weight of the Reagan Administration’s fiscal 1988 budget proposal.

In other markets, livestock and meat futures were mostly higher; energy futures declined.

The March corn delivery hit a new contract low of $1.53 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade before trimming the loss somewhat near the close.

The market in general continues under the influence of oversupply and poor export prospects, said Ted Mao, an analyst in New York with Shearson Lehman Bros.

However, new pressure came from the announcement of the Administration’s budget proposal and various accounts of the details which would reduce funds for Agriculture Department programs.

“The feeling is that the more that is cut, the less support there will be to producers,” Mao said. “Prices will be allowed to drift that much lower.”

“That was the message sent (by the budget proposal) and the message received by the market,” he said.