COMMODITIES : Jitters Over OPEC Meeting Depress Energy Futures

Energy futures retreated Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, depressed by what are regarded as OPEC’s ineffectual moves to stabilize the market.

Among other commodities, precious metals declined; wheat futures rallied sharply, and livestock closed on a firm note.

The oil market had a case of the jitters over a planned meeting Saturday by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ pricing committee.

Nauman Barakat, an analyst in New York with Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., said there had been speculation early in the day that the meeting would be called off.

This was quickly denied, but the reaffirmation that the meeting was on didn’t seem to put much inspiration into the market.

“Obviously, if the meeting is not on this would be more negative for the market. But the bottom line is what the meeting will accomplish--essentially nothing but propaganda,” Barakat said. “The perception is that whether the meeting is on or not, it’s not really going to accomplish anything.”

Precious Metals Lose

He said the OPEC committee probably will end up blaming non-OPEC producers for the turmoil in the market, rather than making any moves to bring some firmness to prices.

“It’ll take a little more than that to bring some stability,” he said.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was 14 cents to 22 cents lower, with the contract for delivery in May at $16.79 a barrel; heating oil was 0.36 cent to 0.80 cent lower, with May at 45.20 cents a gallon, and unleaded gasoline was 0.60 cent to 0.71 cent lower, with May at 48.64 cents a gallon.

Precious metals prices gave back Monday’s gains and then some on the Commodity Exchange in New York.

Events of the day “defused inflationary expectations,” said Bette Raptopoulos, an analyst in New York with Prudential-Bache Securities Inc.

The market weakened early on the strength of the dollar, she said.

“Then,” she said, “(Federal Reserve Governor) Wayne Angell talked about last week’s favorable unemployment data not really being that inflationary. And he felt inflation should be lower.”

Angell referred to data released Friday showing the jobless rate at 5.6%, the lowest since 1979.

Sharp Gain for Wheat

Gold settled $3.30 to $3.60 lower, with the June contract at $456.20 an ounce, and silver was 14 cents to 14.6 cents lower, with May at $6.685 an ounce.

Wheat futures rallied sharply, and most other grain and soybean contracts also were higher on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Wheat showed a little early enthusiasm, reflecting coming export business and an Agriculture Department announcement that the Soviet Union authorized 1 million tons of subsidized wheat, said Jerry Gidel, an analyst with G. H. Miller & Co.

But the market took a sharp turn upward when a professional fund manager bought a huge amount of wheat.

“They probably bought a total of 20 million bushels,” said Joel Karlin, an analyst with Research Department Inc. “They apparently were trying to get a positive trend going.”

Wheat settled 6.25 cents to 8.75 cents higher, with the May contract at $3.065 a bushel; corn was 0.25 cent lower to 1.5 cents higher, with May at $2.085 a bushel; oats were 0.50 cent to 2 cents higher, with May at $1.66 a bushel, and soybeans were 2 cents to 6.5 cents higher, with May at $6.70 a bushel.

Cattle futures recovered from Monday’s sharp losses on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Philip Stanley, an analyst in Chicago with Thomson McKinnon Securities Inc., said trading “began real nervous,” opening lower then falling even more.

But the downturn didn’t take hold, and “the market finished higher and fairly firm,” he said.

Much of Tuesday’s selling was profit taking, rather than an indication of some fundamental weakness in the market, Stanley added.

Live cattle settled 0.12 cent lower to 0.73 cent higher, with the April contract at 73.90 cents a pound; feeder cattle were 0.35 cent lower to 0.15 cent higher, with April at 79.55 cents a pound; live hogs were unchanged to 0.25 cent higher, with April at 45.42 cents a pound, and frozen pork bellies were 1.80 cents lower to 0.13 cent higher, with May at 53.20 cents a pound.

Stock index futures advanced on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where the contract for June delivery of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index settled 2.55 points higher at 259.50. The underlying spot index closed 2.42 higher at 258.51.