FINANCIAL MARKETS : COMMODITIES : Orange Juice Prices Spurred by Report

Orange juice futures prices leaped on the New York Cotton Exchange after the government projected a smaller Florida orange harvest than the market had expected.

On other commodity markets, oil futures advanced, ending a six-day price slide; livestock and meat futures were mixed; grains and soybeans were mixed, and precious metals were mixed.

Prices for future deliveries of frozen concentrated orange juice settled 1.95 cents to 4.85 cents higher in New York, with the contract for delivery in May up 2.55 cents at $1.983 a pound.

Analysts said the run-up was prompted mainly by the Agriculture Department’s monthly orange crop report, which contained the same harvest projections as in March--172 million 90-pound boxes, including 103.1 million boxes from Florida. The report was released Tuesday after the close of trading.