COMMODITIES : Soybean Prices Surge After Crop Reports

Bullish government reports indicating that soybean supplies may be tighter than expected this year sent soybean futures prices soaring in trading Monday at the Chicago Board of Trade.

In other markets, where trading was often volatile, grain prices were mostly higher; precious metals rallied; cattle prices were mostly lower; the pork complex was mixed; energy prices were mostly lower, and stock index futures were mostly lower.

Reports from the Agriculture Department, released after Thursday’s pre-holiday trading session, sparked a wave of buying in soybeans. Bean prices hit new contract highs before a wave of profit taking late in the session offset earlier advances.

The USDA annual report on farmers’ spring planting intentions predicted about a 1% increase in soybean acreage to 57.9 million acres--well below the estimate of 59.1 million acres.

The department’s quarterly grain stocks report estimated soybeans at almost 1.15 billion bushels as of March 1, slightly below the pre-report estimate.

Buying in new crop corn for delivery in deferred months was sparked by the report showing spring planting intentions at 66.9 million acres, up 2% from last year but well below expectations, said Victor Lespinasse, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds in Chicago.

But more bearish news came from the corn stocks estimate of 7.6 billion bushels, slightly above estimates.

Wheat prices rose “in sympathy with strength in the beans,” Lespinasse said.

Wheat settled 3/4 cent to 3 cents higher, with the contract for delivery in May at $3.00 a bushel; corn settled 1 cent lower to 3 cents higher, with May at $2.08 3/4 a bushel; oats settled 2 1/2 cents to 4 3/4 cents higher, with May at $1.64 a bushel, and soybeans settled 15 cents to 17 3/4 cents higher, with May at $6.68 3/4 a bushel.

Volatility marked trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in cattle and hogs, which advanced sharply early in the session on optimism stemming from the USDA’s quarterly hog and pig report released Thursday, but plummeted on late profit taking and other technical factors, analysts said.

The report put the hog and pig count in states that account for 80% of U.S. production at about 40.5 million head as of March 1. Although the 6% increase during the past year met analysts’ expectations, the report indicated smaller increases in hog herd expansion than anticipated, analysts said.

Philip Stanley, an analyst with Thomson McKinnon Securities in Chicago, said there were no outside influences to explain the markets’ sharp selloff late in the session.

Gold and silver futures prices rallied in topsy-turvy trading at the New York Commodity Exchange.

Early gains were sparked by the U.S. dollar’s weak performance and fears of an inflationary trend stemming from Friday’s report of a 5.6% jobless rate in March, the lowest in nine years, said Jack Barbanel, director of the futures trading division at Gruntal & Co. in New York.

But while the market closed up, “Gains by the end of the day evaporated on profit taking,” he said.

Gold settled $1.60 to $2.80 higher, with the contract for delivery in April at $456.70 an ounce; while silver settled 3.4 cents to 7.7 cents higher, with April at $6.789 an ounce.

Energy futures prices were mostly lower in quiet trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Stock index futures were mostly lower on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where the contract for June delivery of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index settled 2.10 points lower at 256.95.