COMMODITIES : Rising Oil Futures Give a Boost to Gold, Silver

Oil futures prices surged Tuesday, helping trigger moderate gains in precious metals futures prices and lifting silver prices from 20-month lows.

On other markets, copper futures surged, orange juice futures plunged, sugar was up sharply, grains and soybeans were mostly higher, livestock and meat were mixed and stock index futures advanced.

Energy futures traded up their permitted daily limits at mid-session on the New York Mercantile Exchange on indications that OPEC would eventually agree on new crude oil production limits at its Vienna metting.

Some heating oil contracts retained their 2-cents-a-gallon gains into the close, but most other energy prices eased slightly in afternoon trading after Iran and Iraq renewed the verbal feuding that has held up progress on a plan to curb oil output, analysts said.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil settled 88 to 92 cents higher, with the contract for delivery in January at $13.86 a barrel; heating oil was 1.70 to 2 cents higher, with December at 45.44 cents a gallon, and unleaded gasoline was 1.01 to 1.99 cents higher, with December at 45.33 cents a gallon.

The inflation sensitive precious metals markets “were trading off the back of oil all day long,” said Jerry Rothman of Elders Futures.

Gold and silver futures posted sharp gains in morning trading on New York’s Commodity Exchange, then fell back as oil prices eased.

Gold settled $1.60 to $1.80 higher, with December at $418.10 an ounce; silver was 5 to 7.1 cents higher, with December at $6.075 an ounce.

Copper futures surged on the Comex on a mix of bullish technical signals and renewed concerns about the near-term availability of physical supplies. Copper settled 1 cent to 9.10 cents higher, with December at $1.428 a pound.

Prices of frozen concentrated orange juice futures plunged on the New York Cotton Exchange on weak chart signals and expectations for abundant orange harvests in Florida and Brazil, analysts said.

Orange juice settled 2 to 2.5 cents lower, with January at $1.6835 a pound.

Sugar futures prices leaped on New York’s Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange after the West German statistics firm F. O. Licht reduced its estimate for the 1988-89 European sugar beet crop by 750,000 metric tons.

Sugar settled 0.10 to 0.49 cent higher, with the active March contract at 10.65 cents a pound.

Grain and soybean futures finished mostly higher on the Chicago Board of Trade, with the wheat market showing new vigor on speculation that the Agriculture Department would offer wheat to China.

Wheat settled 0.50 cent to 6.75 cents higher, with December at $4.15 a bushel; corn was 1.75 to 2.25 cents higher, with December at $2.6275 a bushel; oats were 1.75 to 3 cents higher, with December at $2.09 a bushel, and soybeans were 2.25 cents lower to 5 cents higher, with January at $7.5075 a bushel.

Pork futures finished mostly lower, pressured by Monday’s USDA monthly cold-storage report, which showed supplies of frozen pork at a record Nov. 1 high.

Live cattle settled 0.10 to 0.40 cent higher, with December at 72.77 cents a pound; feeder cattle were unchanged to 0.40 cent higher, with January at 81.62 cents a pound; live hogs were 1.20 cents lower to 0.08 cent higher, with December at 39.75 cents a pound, and frozen pork bellies were 0.45 cent lower to 0.05 cent higher, with February at 42.37 cents a pound.

Stock index futures advanced on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where the December contract of Standard & Poor’s 500 settled 1.45 higher at 268.35.