Commodities : Precious-Metals Futures Off

Precious-metals futures declined Monday, resisting the normally buoyant effect of the declining dollar.

On other markets, energy futures were lower; cotton and pork bellies were as much as the limit higher, and soybeans were lower while corn was higher. After rising sharply on Friday, the dollar resumed its decline when trading opened on Monday. Ordinarily, the value of precious metals and the dollar move inversely.

“But metals traders don’t think the dollar is going to remain weak,” said Bette Raptopoulos, an analyst in New York with Prudential-Bache Securities Inc.

The traders were looking ahead to Tuesday, she said, when the goverment issues a number of economic reports, including the leading economic indicators, factory orders and single-family home sales.

“The general feeling,” said Raptopoulos, “is that some of these are going to be pluses, particularly the leading indicators.”

Also, she said, the metals responded to a decline in oil futures prices. At the Commoditiy Exchange in New York, gold settled $4 to $4.10 lower with the contract for delivery in February at $401.10 a troy ounce.