20110810 1051 Global Commodities Related News.

Corn (Source: CME)
US corn futures close higher in a rebound from a one-month low, supported by concerns about output. Private estimates for US corn production are "still eroding" following a damaging heat wave in July, says Rich Feltes of RJ O'Brien. The USDA lowered its "good-to-excellent" rating for the corn crop again Monday and will update its outlook for the autumn harvest in a monthly report Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones predict the department will cut its crop estimate by 2.9% from the July forecast to 13.083B bushels. CBOT December corn rises 2 1/2c to $6.88 1/2 a bushel. US corn futures finished lower as rains are expected to benefit crops after hot, dry weather last week. Traders paying close attention to the weather as farmers need favorable conditions to grow a large crop necessary to replenish low supplies. "Conditions have turned benign for the developing crops in much of the Corn Belt," says Karl Setzer, analyst for MaxYield Cooperative in Iowa. Near-term demand is easing as grain users wait for the next harvest to make purchases. CBOT December corn drops 5 1/4c to $6.86 1/4 a bushel.

Wheat (Source: CME)
US wheat futures finished stronger in a turnaround from recent losses. Spillover support from modest gains in the corn market lends support as both grains are used to feed livestock. "Wheat is the tail of the dog to the corn," says Tim Hannagan of PFG Best. Additional support comes from traders buying back previously sold positions. Many expect the USDA will reduce its estimate for wheat output in a monthly report Thursday. CBOT September wheat gains 15 1/4c to $6.71 3/4 a bushel, KCBT September climbs 7 3/4c to $7.63 and MGE September rises 11 1/2c to $8.16 3/4.

Rice (Source: CME)
US rice futures ended up their 50c daily limit as crop worries drive a recovery from recent losses. The market has rebounded since touching a 3-week low intraday Friday. Traders worry the USDA will tighten its supply outlook in a monthly crop report Thursday due to poor weather that has stressed crops and reduced plantings in the southern US. CBOT September rice climbs to $16.77/hundredweight. The daily limit expands to 75c Wednesday.

Soy at 4-1/2 month low, corn falls as recession fear spreads
SINGAPORE, Aug 9 (Reuters) - U.S. soy lost more ground dropping to its lowest since mid-March, while corn fell to a one-week low and wheat hovered near a one-month low on fears of recession in the United States following a cut in the country's credit rating.
"Grain and oilseed markets are sharply lower on pressure from external markets," said Kazuhiko Saito, chief commodities analyst at Tokyo-based trading company Fujitomi.

Russia says to lift ban on EU vegetables from Aug 9
MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russia will lift its ban on raw vegetables from all European Union countries starting on Tuesday, Aug. 9, the head of the country's consumer watchdog said on Monday.
Russia banned imports of raw vegetables from the European Union on June 2 due to a deadly E. coli outbreak. Moscow later agreed to drop the ban provided it received safety guarantees and has since allowed imports from some EU nations.

Russia harvests grain from 30 pct of sown area
MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russia has so far harvested 39.8 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight as the campaign gained momentum in almost all grain-growing regions after a slow start caused by rains, Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.
Farmers harvested grain from 30 percent of the sown area by Aug. 8, the ministry said, without providing a comparison for the same date last year, when the country was hit by a severe drought and had to accelerate the harvesting campaign.

East European wheat crops mostly going well
HAMBURG, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Wheat crops in eastern European Union countries are generally developing well and the region is likely to generate an export surplus from this year's crop, analysts said on Monday.
Harvesting is mostly progressing on schedule although there is concern late rain may threaten crop quality in major producer Poland.

US corn conditions fall more than expected, soy rises
CHICAGO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The condition of the U.S. corn crop declined more than expected last week, with hot and dry weather stressing the crop as it starts the crucial pollination phase, government data showed on Monday.
The U.S. Agriculture Department rated the corn crop at 60 percent good to excellent as of Sunday, down 2 percentage points from a week earlier and down from 71 percent a year ago.

CFTC Backs New Corn Trading Limit (Source: CME)
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a controversial proposal to increase the one-day trading limit for U.S. corn futures. Regulators approved CME's request to raise the limit for daily gains or losses at the Chicago Board of Trade to 40 cents from 30 cents following an extended review period. The exchange pursued the increase despite opposition from grain users because it said historically high prices called for a larger limit. Corn futures reached a record high in June as demand for low inventories stayed strong in the face of high prices. They have since pulled back 15% due to easing concerns about supplies. "We believe increasing daily price limits will result in less-frequent limit moves and will help ensure that our markets provide the most effective means for price discovery and risk management markets," said Dave Lehman, CME's managing director of commodity research and product development.
CME's proposal ran into stiff opposition from farmers, grain elevators and food companies, who said the increase was unnecessary. They complained the larger limit would increase volatility in the corn market and expose hedgers to bigger margin calls if prices surge--concerns CME said were unfounded. The exchange operator dialed back the proposal in response to initial objections. It originally proposed to increase the daily limit to 50 cents. Market participants continued to criticize the plan after it was approved, saying it was a play by CME to increase trading volume. They said CME wanted to expand the one-day limit because trading stops when a futures contract rises or falls to the limit as a way of controlling risk for market participants. "The powers that be think there's some sort of lost volume there that they can capture" with an increased limit, said Jerry Gidel, analyst for North America Risk Management Services, a brokerage in Chicago.
The exchange last widened the limit for corn in March 2008 with an increase to 30 cents from 20 cents. Corn futures at the time traded around $5.50 a bushel and ended up climbing to a record high of $7.65 a bushel in June of that year. That record fell this year, with the market reaching a new, all-time high of $7.99 3/4 a bushel in early June. The nearby contract traded around $6.82 a bushel. Under current rules, the daily limit can temporarily expand to 45 cents from the base limit of 30 cents if two or more futures contract months settle at the daily limit. The limit can expand again to 70 cents if the market finishes at the daily limit for a second day. Under the new rules, price limits will be 40 cents, with a maximum of one increase to 60 cents. The new limit takes effect Aug. 22.

US spring wheat acreage a wild card in USDA-trade
CHICAGO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Grain traders and analysts expect the U.S. Department of Agriculture's monthly crop production report on Thursday to help clarify a major unknown of the U.S. 2011 planting season -- how much spring wheat farmers were able to plant this season.
Heavy winter snowfall and excessive spring rains plagued producers across the northern U.S. Plains spring wheat belt, causing widespread planting delays.

US corn crop seen near record, but heat takes toll
CHICAGO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The United States will likely produce its second-largest corn crop this year, according to a Reuters Poll, but the forecast is smaller than the record harvest seen just last month due to damage from rains and high heat.
A survey of 24 analysts and traders put the corn crop in the United States, the world's top exporter of the grain, at 13.082 billion bushels, which would be the largest since the record crop of 13.110 billion harvested in 2009.

Cargill Weighs Post-Mosaic Options (Source: CME)
Cargill Inc. starts the new fiscal year with a very strong balance sheet after paying down debt following the sale of its majority stake in Mosaic Co. (MOS), Cargill's chief financial officer said. That will give Cargill plenty of options as it looks for ways to bolster its standing as a diverse company able to manage a highly volatile commodity sector, CFO Sergio Rial said in an interview after the company announced fourth-quarter earnings. The company, whose diverse businesses range from grain merchandising to meat processing to energy trading, invested more than $3 billion in acquisitions and expansions in the fiscal year ended May 31, which Rial said was a record. He said the company's expansion plans would continue to focus on maintaining diverse interests, rather than focusing on specific geographic regions or businesses, although he added, "We'll have to see what the world brings to us."
Cargill completed its Mosaic transaction in late May. It distributed roughly 178 million Mosaic shares to Cargill shareholders and exchanged the remaining 107.5 million shares with Cargill debtholders. The deal reduces Cargill's debt, Rial said, and will keep the company in private hands. "There are absolutely no plans for Cargill to go public," Rial said. The company reported fourth-quarter earnings slipped 7% due to weaker results in its food ingredients business, particularly related to meat products, as well as losses in energy trading. Rial said the energy losses were spread among several markets, including crude oil, natural gas and coal. "Volatility cuts both ways," Rial said. Rial added that while the company does not yet have all of the facts related to its recent turkey recall stemming from salmonella contamination, "the financial impact should not be material."

US Crop Wins Weather Boost (Source: CME)
Cooler, wetter weather has given the U.S. soybean crop a boost after an intense heat wave in July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed Monday. The department, in a weekly crop report, raised its good-to-excellent rating for soybeans by 1 percentage point from last week to 61% while lowering the rating for corn by 2 percentage points to 60%. The divergent adjustments show soybeans are "very much different from corn" because the oilseed crop can still reap significant benefits from better weather, said Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities, a brokerage firm in Iowa. The corn crop likely suffered some irreversible damage from high temperatures that baked the Midwest during a critical period of development for corn last month. Soybeans have more potential to rebound because August is the most important month for the crop's development. "Soybeans can greatly be aided here by the cooler, wetter weather," Roose said.
Traders are paying close attention to the weather and condition ratings because farmers need to harvest large crops to replenish low inventories. Corn futures have pulled back 16% since reaching an all-time high in June on supply concerns, but users of the grain remain nervous about threats to production. The drop in the corn rating was unsurprising as conditions typically appear to deteriorate as the crop matures, analysts said. Corn was planted before soybeans in the spring and will be harvested before soybeans this autumn. The USDA said 7% of the corn crop was in the "dented" stage of development, behind the five-year average of 10% for that time of year, following late planting this spring. Development of soybeans also was delayed, with 51% of the crop setting pods, behind the average of 63% for that time of year, according to the USDA.
As for cotton, the crop continues to struggle from a relentless drought in the southern Plains. More than 40% of U.S. cotton is in poor or very poor condition, according to the USDA. Record drought has put the country's entire 2011-12 crop in doubt. Texas, the biggest producing state, is getting the worst of it. U.S. pasture and range conditions also worsened last week, with 38% rated very poor to poor, compared with 36% the previous week and 15% a year ago, according to the USDA. Texas has the highest percentage of pasture land in the very poor to poor categories at 94%, and most of the state remains in an exceptional drought, the highest measurement. As for wheat, the USDA cut its good-to-excellent rating for the spring wheat crop by 4 percentage points to 70% good to excellent. The crop was planted last due to heavy rains, with only 6% harvested as of Sunday, behind the average of 24% for that time of year.
In North Dakota, the top producer of spring wheat, the rating dropped 6 percentage points to 72% as "some producers reported insect damage and concerns that the recent excessive moisture would promote disease," according to USDA's field office in North Dakota. Just 2% of the state's crop was harvested, behind the average of 21% for that time of year.

Weather Services Warn Of Potential 'La Nina' Return (Source: CME)
A new round of the extreme weather patterns that devastated production of iron ore, coal and agricultural crops such as wheat in Australia, South America and the U.S. in late 2010 could be poised to return this autumn and hit prices in the process, but with less serious consequences overall than last year, weather forecasters told Dow Jones Newswires Monday. Sentiment towards commodities lying in the traditional path of conditions known as La Nina is starting to turn more bullish, exacerbated by supply shortages in a number of products like iron ore and coal. Forecasting models by the U.S. National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center predict La Nina will redevelop this autumn. "Atmospheric patterns continue to reflect La Nina-like conditions," the weather body said.
La Nina is a periodic climatic phenomenon that brings more rain to the western Pacific, and to a lesser extent, to the eastern Pacific. Climatologists blamed La Nina for last year's floods that gripped Australia, resulting in major losses to coal and iron ore stockpiles. Australia, the world's largest exporter of coking coal, lost around 10 million metric tons of its supply last year as mines were flooded, causing prices of the commodity used in steelmaking to soar. But while it isn't clear what impact La Nina might have on the production and shipment of commodities, its return isn't expected to cause the same serious problems as in 2010. That's because historically the La Nina weather phenomenon occurs in bursts of three consecutive years, with the first one being the worst and the next two much milder.
Yet that doesn't mean the changing weather patterns won't hit the production of crops and products like coal this time around. Joe Vaclavik, grains broker at Chicago-based MF global, said from an agricultural commodity markets perspective, the biggest fear of a second La Nina would be the continuation of the current drought in the U.S. southern plains, causing further damage to the winter wheat crop. Futures prices for winter wheat grown in the southern Plains are already up 13% from a year ago at about $7.65 a bushel at the Kansas City Board of Trade, as weather-related concerns mount over the next crop.
Matt Rogers, President of Maryland-based Commodity Weather Group, warned that possible effects from the second round of La Nina could bring above-normal precipitation in eastern Australia, but would actually benefit the wheat and barley crops in terms of moisture. Yet, dryness concerns could be an issue for Argentina and southern Brazil, which would experience lower amounts of rainfall, causing damage to wheat, corn and soybean yields.

Food Markets Seen Resilient As Commodities Slump (Source: CME)
Agricultural markets should stay relatively immune to the turmoil that has seen commodities and equities markets tumble in recent days, analysts said. Spurred by a downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating by Standard & Poor's Corp. and ongoing concerns about the growing European debt crisis, London's FTSE 100 fell below 5000 for the first time since July 2010, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 635 points Monday, the sixth-largest daily points drop in its history. Agricultural commodities, however, have posted more muted losses. Sugar, down 6% this month, jumped 5% as sentiment towards commodities improved, leading gains in coffee, cocoa and wheat. U.S. corn futures are up on the month. "With agricultural commodities, even in periods of recession or a downturn in global growth, demand doesn't decline in the same way as it does across energy and metals markets," said Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, commodities analyst at Barclays Capital. Agricultural markets have had a bumpy ride this year.
In the six months to June, the sector saw total inflows of $5 billion--almost 40% of the total--including the largest quarterly influx on record, according to BarCap. This trend reversed in the second quarter, with $2.2 billion of outflows, the first since the financial crisis. ETF Securities said that its agriculture exchange traded products have recouped one-quarter of their first-half outflows over the past month, "suggesting that much of the first half outflows may have been short term profit taking". "We would...expect agricultural prices to outperform the rest of the commodity complex, especially the more cyclically-leveraged energy and industrial metal sectors," said Goldman Sachs. Much of agricultural markets' resilience comes down to tight fundamentals. Hot weather across the U.S. corn belt has sparked fears this year's crop will once again fall short of demand at a time when stocks are at historically low levels, pushing up prices across the whole grains complex.
In sugar too, concerns that output from top producer Brazil will fall for the first time in a decade in 2011-12 has pushed up prices and spurred managed money investment to a record 26% of open interest. JP Morgan said it expects sugar and gold to see the most future upside. "Dollar weakness and rising inflation expectations also open the upside for raw sugar prices to surge far higher than would otherwise be likely, perhaps doubling or more in a spike," said the bank.

US, Food Makers Warn Of Higher Prices In 2012 (Source: CME)
American consumers can expect bigger grocery bills in 2012, even as commodity prices are forecast to fall. The U.S. is expected to churn out more staples like corn, wheat and soy, which would drive commodity prices lower in 2012. However, it takes several months for a commodity such as corn to make its way down the production line and into a box of cereal, so consumers next year will be buying food made from raw materials bought this year, when crop prices reached multiyear highs. Weather problems including frosts, floods and droughts have driven commodity prices this year. Corn futures in Chicago reached a record high near $8 a bushel in June, while wheat almost touched $9 a bushel in February, and arabica coffee futures in New York topped $3 a pound, a 14-year high, in May.
Major food companies like Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT), Corn Flakes maker Kellogg Co. (K) and General Mills (GIS), producer of Yoplait yogurt and Cheerios, have already taken steps such as raising prices or shrinking products to offset higher raw-material costs and are likely to continue doing so next year. In a recent report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said grocery-store prices will likely rise 3% to 4% in 2012, on par with this year, even though ingredient costs may fall. The biggest increases would likely be in the first half of next year, but prices would most likely ease later in 2012, said USDA economist Richard Volpe. "We're seeing that retailers really have no choice but to start increasing prices in order to restore their profit margins, so we're expecting food prices to continue rising in 2012," said Volpe.
At the center of the rise in agricultural commodities prices this year is corn. Futures prices in Chicago have pulled back from their record high but are still up 7% since the start of the year. High demand, particularly from China, is expected to support prices. The severe heat wave in the American Midwest this summer could hurt corn yields in the fall, which would further boost prices. Other commodities used widely by food companies have also skyrocketed, as bad harvests in major growers and increased global demand pushed up prices. Benchmark arabica coffee futures in New York have surged close to 40% over the past 12 months, and companies such as Starbucks Corp. (SBUX), Kraft and J.M. Smucker Co. (SJM) have already raised coffee prices this year. But the companies are taking a cautious stance on how consumers will respond to higher prices. Food executives have found it easier to raise prices on items geared toward high-end consumers, who are less price-sensitive than lower-income shoppers.
Instead of raising prices on Frosted Flakes and other price-sensitive brands, Kellogg is offering smaller sizes to avoid scaring off shoppers. "If you go over $4 a box, you're going to lose a lot more consumers," Kellogg Chief Executive John Bryant said in a recent interview.

ICE sugar, coffee fall as recession fears grow
LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - ICE sugar and coffee futures fell on Tuesday, weighed by fears of a global recession as a rout in stocks continued, after ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut its U.S. rating late on Friday to AA-plus from AAA.
ICE October raw sugar futures dipped at the market opening, trading around 15 percent off the contract high of 31.68 cents a lb touched last month.

Brazil coffee frost damage seen light in places
BRASILIA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Damage from a frost that swept over Brazil's southeastern coffee belt on Friday should be light in some of the areas hit in the south of Minas Gerais state, cooperative Minasul said Monday.
Agronomist Gustavo Renno from Minasul, which handles around 1 million bags or roughly 2 percent of Brazil's crop each year in the top coffee state Minas Gerais, said few of its members' plantations were affected by the freeze.

Vietnam Coffee-2011 exports to dip, premiums widen
HANOI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Coffee trading in Vietnam has been frozen due to high prices and thin stocks and the world's second-largest producer after Brazil could see shipment in calendar 2011 drop more than 5 percent, traders and an industry group said on Tuesday.
Exports are estimated to reach 1.15 million tonnes, or 19.17 million bags, in calendar 2011, down 5.43 percent from last year, the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) said after a meeting last Friday to review export activities.

Thailand sees at least 9.2 mln tonnes 2011/12 sugar output
BANGKOK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Thailand, the world's second-biggest sugar exporter, is expected to produce at least 9.2 million tonnes of sugar in the current 2011/12 crop, a senior official at the Office of Cane and Sugar Board (OCSB) said on Tuesday.
"That's a conservative, preliminary forecast ... We need to do a survey again on how much cane was destroyed by the recent storm, Nock-Ten. But at this moment I don't expect any big damage," Prasert Tapaneeyangkul, secretary-general of the OCSB, told Reuters.

Main Brazil co-ops say coffee frost impact small
BRASILIA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Damage from a frost that swept over Brazil's southeastern coffee belt last Friday startling the market, was expected to have a small impact on next year's harvest, three cooperatives in the region said on Monday.
That is welcome news for a tightly-supplied global coffee market that can ill-afford weather-related production losses after supplies recently fell behind rapidly growing demand, leaving importers struggling to find the beans they needed.

Ivorian cocoa arrivals seen 25 pct over last season
ABIDJAN, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached around 1,382,000 tonnes by August 7, some 25 percent ahead of the same period last season, exporters estimated on Monday.
The figure compared with 1,108,560 tonnes in the same period of the previous season

Rubber Futures in Tokyo Advance as Much as 2.4% to 364.1 Yen a Kilogram (Source: Bloomberg)
Rubber futures in Tokyo advanced as much as 2.4 percent to 364.1 yen per kilogram before trading at 361.5 yen at 9:03 a.m. local time.

Thailand sees at least 9.2 mln tonnes 2011/12 sugar crop
BANGKOK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Thailand, the world's second-biggest sugar exporter, is expected to produce at least 9.2 million tonnes of the sweetener in the current 2011/12 crop, a senior official at the Office of Cane and Sugar Board (OCSB) said on Tuesday.
"That's a conservative, preliminary forecast ... We need to do a survey again on how much cane was destroyed by the recent storm, Nock-Ten. But at this moment I don't expect any big damage," Prasert Tapaneeyangkul, secretary-general of the OCSB, told Reuters.

Crude Oil Surges After Federal Reserve Statement, Drop in U.S. Stockpiles (Source: Bloomberg)
Oil rebounded from a 10-month low in New York as investors bet fuel demand will increase amid shrinking stockpiles and comments by the Federal Reserve that it is prepared to use a range of tools to bolster the economy. Futures gained for the first time in three days after the Fed said in a statement yesterday it will keep interest rates near zero until mid-2013 and use other tools “as appropriate.” Crude inventories declined the most since June, according to the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute. U.S. equities jumped the most in more than two years. “It looks like markets want to turn back up,” Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover Inc., an energy adviser in New Canaan, Connecticut, said in an e-mailed note. Traders bought oil after the settlement and “prices were back in positive numbers after the API report, which showed inventory draw-downs across the board,” he said.

Libyan rebels sell second oil cargo, last for now
LONDON/DUBAI, July 28 (Reuters) - A tanker carrying crude oil has sailed from Benghazi, headed towards Sardinia, as Libya's rebels sell the last of their stockpile to raise urgently needed funds, industry sources and ship tracking data said on Thursday.
Traders said the tanker, Captain X Kyriakou, was chartered by Swiss-based trading house Vitol earlier in July and had been seen this week off Marsa El Hariga near Tobruk and Benghazi in eastern Libya, the rebels' stronghold.

Brent crude darts below $100 on economy fears
LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Brent crude slumped to its lowest in six months on Tuesday,   crossing the $100 level briefly on mounting worries about prospects for the world economy after a U.S. credit downgrade intensified fears about a global slowdown in demand for energy.
"The underlying fundamental is that demand in Europe and the U.S. is not strong we have a sell off in equities and confidence in the global recovery has been hit again," said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland.

Argentina postpones offshore oil bloc offer-source
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Argentina postponed the auction of exploration rights to 32 offshore oil blocs that had been scheduled for this week, citing the tumult on world markets, a source at state oil company Enarsa said.
"It will be postponed," the source, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.

Russia H1 nickel, copper export volumes drop
MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russian copper and nickel export  volumes outside the Commonwealth of Independent States declined  in the first half of the year, while aluminium shipments rose,  customs data showed on Monday.
Russia exported 1.68 million tonnes of aluminium outside of  the CIS in the period, up 6.4 percent year on year, while  earnings rose 24.5 percent to $3.55 billion.

Indonesia's July tin exports rise 4.5 pct yr/yr
JAKARTA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Indonesia's refined tin exports rose 4.5 percent in July from the same month last year, an official at the trade ministry said on Tuesday.
Indonesia, the world's top tin exporter, shipped 9,265.72 tonnes of refined tin in July, compared to 8,869.51 tonnes in July last year, trade ministry data showed.  

China begins new crackdown on rare earth sector
BEIJING, Aug 8 (Reuters) - China will punish rare earth producers that fail to stick to a nationwide production quota after launching an inspection of the sector at the beginning of August, the country's industry ministry said on Monday.
In a notice posted, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said enterprises that exceed quotas or continue to employ environmentally destructive production techniques could have their quotas  and licenses cancelled.

METALS-Copper slips to 8-mth low on global growth concerns
LONDON, Aug 9(Reuters) - Copper prices fell to eight-month lows on Tuesday as nervousness about the health of the global economy prompted investors to sell assets perceived as risky, although traders said further falls were limited by consumer buying on expectations longer-term demand for the metal will remain intact.
"Macroeconomic data has worsened over the past weeks and on top of that we have the debt crisis in the euro zone and the credit downgrade in the United States. What is of concern is that compared to 2008, policymakers now have no further room for interest rate cuts or additional stimulus measures," said Daniel Briesemann, analyst at Commerzbank.

PRECIOUS-Gold tops $1,770 in biggest three-day rally since 2008
LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Gold hit a record $1,778 an ounce on Tuesday, in its biggest three-day rally since the depths of the financial crisis in late 2008, as equities succumbed to investor fear over the threat to the global economy from the European and U.S. debt crises.
"The market could come off from here, but it's headed in a northerly direction," said ANZ head of metal sales Peter Hillyard. "From where we are now, you might think we could see some sort of pull-back. But I'm talking about a momentary thing, a pull-back like the loading of a gun, which then fires away."

Gold Advances to Record on Slowdown Concern (Source: Bloomberg)
Gold futures advanced, extending a rally to a record for the second straight day, as the Federal Reserve pledged to keep its benchmark interest rate low at least through mid-2013. Gold retreated from the settlement after equities rallied as investors studied today’s Fed policy statement. The metal has jumped 45 percent in the past year following bond buybacks by the central bank during two rounds of so-called qualitative easing, combined with the lowest borrowing costs ever. “The anxiety premium for gold remains,” Adam Klopfenstein, a senior strategist at MF Global Holdings Ltd. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “People are disappointed that there was no mention of QE3, but the statement shows that the government is not willing to go too excessive to stimulate the economy.”

Baltic ship futures screen users growing - exchange
LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - The Baltic Exchange's platform for centralised electronic trading of dry freight derivatives has signed up 15 principals and five brokers in its first month and aims to boost liquidity in the coming months, the exchange said on Wednesday.
Freight forward agreements (FFAs), which allow a buyer to take a position on freight rates at a point in the future, had not previously traded on a central marketplace.

Growth fears add to dry bulk shipping crisis
LONDON/SINGAPORE, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Growing fears for the world economy signal more pain and even bankruptcies among dry bulk ship owners who are getting rock-bottom rates to carry cargoes like coal and now face a glut of new vessels ordered when times were good.
The tougher climate has hit the sector hard this year and confidence is at a record low. Korea Line , South Korea's debt-stricken second largest dry bulk shipping line, is among the casualties. The firm, under court receivership, has filed a restructuring plan to the court.

Ship insurers add Benin to risk list after attacks
LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - London's marine insurance market has added Benin to a list of areas deemed high risk due to an escalation of pirate attacks in the area, a senior official said.  
Pirates attacked two Panamanian-flagged tankers carrying oil off the coast of Benin last week but were driven off by the Benin navy before they could steal the cargoes.

Japan, China shut ports in path of powerful typhoon
SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Japan and China have suspended some operations at several oil, dry bulk and container ports ahead of a powerful typhoon that could be one of the worst in the area for years, industry officials said on Friday.
Ports in Japan's Okinawa island closed as Typhoon Muifa neared its shores, while China's ports in Ningbo and Zhoushan cut operations as forecasters predicted they would be hit over the weekend.

Drybulk weakness may lead to covenant pressure -Wells Fargo
July 22 (Reuters) - Fundamental weakness will likely drive continual cash flow erosion and covenant pressure within the dry bulk shippers, Wells Fargo Securities said, and lowered its rating on four stocks.
The shipping sector has been hit hard in the last two years as demand to ship commodities has lagged the supply of vessels.
Analyst Michael Webber lowered his rating on the stocks of Diana Shipping , Genco Shipping & Trading  and Excel Maritime Carriers  to "underperform" from "market perform". Eagle Bulk Shipping  has been lowered to "underperform" from "outperform".