20110824 1505 Global Market & Commodities Related News.

Asian shares fall as Fed rally runs out of steam
SINGAPORE, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Asian shares fell  as a rally fuelled by speculation that the Federal Reserve may signal further moves to support the struggling U.S. economy swiftly petered out, while gold rebounded from its sharpest one-day slide in 18 months.
"It's been a while since Japan lost its triple-A status, so it is unlikely that Japan's interest rates will rise sharply," said Fumiyuki Takahashi, managing director at Barclays Capital.

Libya gives world economy needed break: James Saft
--James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own--
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug 23 (Reuters) - For Libyans the fall of Muammar Gaddafi comes about 40 years too late, but from the point of view of the global economy it is not a moment too soon.
The apparent end of the reign of Gaddafi, whose whereabouts were unknown on Monday after rebels took Tripoli, will take pressure off of the price of energy, especially in hard-hit parts of southern Europe, and thus ultimately may remove roadblocks to further easing by either the European Central Bank or Federal Reserve.

US wheat drops from over 2-month top; corn, soy dip
SINGAPORE, Aug 24 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat fell 0.4 percent, snapping a three-day rising streak, while corn dipped after climbing to contract highs in the last session as investors booked profit amid  Moody's downgrade of Japan's sovereign debt rating.
"The U.S. dollar is starting to creep a little bit higher so that is possibly a source of downside price pressure," said Luke Mathews, an agricultural commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Brazil external gap up as commodity boom fizzles
BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's current account deficit widened in July as a global slowdown weighed on commodity exports like soybeans and iron ore whose prices some government officials foresee as steady in coming months.
The data highlighted Brazil's need to reduce dependence on raw material exports at a time when Latin America's largest economy is beginning to cool following a credit-driven consumer spending boom.

Cargill sees cocoa supply meeting growing demand
LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Cargill expects world 2011/12 cocoa supplies will be adequate to meet demand, including the cushion of a sizable global surplus from the previous crop, the U.S. agribusiness giant said on Tuesday.
"Weather has been pretty okay and pretty normal in the main regions, but given the fact that it hasn't been outstanding weather and given the fact that we are positive with respect to demand, at best we see a balanced picture," Jos de Loor, managing director of cocoa and chocolate at Cargill, told Reuters.

Indiana corn potential seen below year ago
TIPPECANOE, Indiana, Aug. 23 (Reuters) - Corn yield prospects in north-central Indiana were down sharply from a year ago as planting delays and adverse weather clipped production potential, scouts on an annual crop tour said Tuesday.
Yield prospects were slightly better in central and west-central Indiana, the fifth largest U.S. corn producing state, but still below a year ago, scouts said.

Brazil mills focus on sugar as crush slackens
SAO PAULO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's cane mills will produce more sugar and less ethanol from what cane they have left to harvest through the end of the season due to better profits from the sweetener, analysts told Reuters.
The industry which produces sugar and ethanol biofuel from sugar cane has slashed its outlook for the cane harvest. Reduced cane output has limited the supply of both products and supported sugar prices which are hovering near 30-year highs.

German rain dampens EU wheat crop outlook
HAMBURG, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Persistent rain is causing concern about late quality damage to the wheat crop in Germany, the European Union's second largest wheat producer, but more promising harvests in France and Britain could compensate, analysts and traders said on Tuesday.
"Germany's harvest is not facing a disaster but there will be a significant loss of quality and more feed wheat produced than expected," one analyst said. "This will reduce German export supplies in the coming year."

S.Africa eyes China, Venezuela for maize export mkts
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 23 (Reuters) - South Africa, looking for more export outlets for its maize after a bumper harvest last year, has received interest from China and is awaiting a response from the Venezuela government, an industry official said on Tuesday.
Nico Hawkins, an economist at farmers' group Grain SA, said a Chinese government delegation visited the country last month to assess the crop.

Global soybean stocks bigger than thought-Oil World
HAMBURG, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Global Aug. 31, 2011, soybean stocks will exceed estimates and keep soybean supplies in the upcoming 2011/12 season sufficient despite a lower-than-forecast crop, oilseeds analysts Oil World said on Tuesday.
"World ending stocks of the 2010/11 season will be higher than expected at a record 75.8 million tonnes (on Aug. 31), approximately 10.0 million tonnes above a year ago," Oil World said.

Russia crops grain from half of sown area - AgMin
MOSCOW, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Russia harvested 57.9 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight by Aug. 23 from 22 million hectares, or 50 percent of the sown area, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry did not provide a comparative figure, but a year ago it said farmers harvested 41.5 million tonnes of grain by Aug. 25, 31 percent down from the same date in 2009 due to a severe drought.

S.Africa maize crop forecast seen down on wet weather
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 23 (Reuters) - South Africa is likely to cut its maize output forecast for the May 2010/April 2011 season as continued wet weather in some parts of the country delay the harvesting process and damage crops, a Reuters survey showed on Tuesday.
The government's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) seventh maize output forecast for the 2010/11 season would come in at 10.63 million tonnes, compared with a previous government forecast of 10.854 million tonnes, according to the average estimates of seven trading houses polled by Reuters.

Brent crude above $109; hopes pinned on Fed
SINGAPORE, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Brent crude prices steadied above $109  as investors pinned their hopes on the U.S. Federal Reserve to inject fresh stimulus to boost the world's largest economy.
"The oil market is trending higher, and you see this in the equities market as well, but it's purely based on the prospects of a QE2," Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services in Sydney, said.

US crude inventories drop, gasoline jumps-API
NEW YORK, Aug 23 (Reuters) - U.S. crude inventories fell unexpectedly on lower imports while gasoline stockpiles rose sharply, weekly data from the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.
U.S. crude inventories fell 3.3 million barrels in the week to Aug. 19, against analyst forecasts for an 800,000-barrel rise, led by a 1.5-million barrel drawdown in the U.S. Midwest and a 900,000-barrel drop in West Coast inventories.

Oil services firms eye Libya return, output increase
NEW YORK/LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Limited Libyan oil production ought to resume quite quickly as most fields appear to have survived the civil war unscathed, international oil services companies say, but many are still waiting for more stability in the country before sending employees back in.
In interviews with some of the biggest oil services players in pre-civil war Libya, most echoed the view that major oil fields had largely avoided serious damage during the six months of fighting, though some voiced concerns about damage to export terminals and pipelines.

Rails, not pipes, may tame twisted oil market
NEW YORK, Aug 23 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil shipments by railroad could help to end gaping price distortions in world oil markets faster than most traders have been expecting.
Rail shipments of crude from the landlocked and oversupplied Midwest to refiners in the Gulf Coast appear set to surge next year, to nearly double the volume now flowing in congested pipelines between the regions.

Libyan oil output could resume quite soon, says OPS
LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Limited Libyan oil production could resume quite quickly as most oilfields appear to have survived the civil war unscathed, but output may be delayed several months by clogged pipelines, oil services company OPS International said on Tuesday.
OPS Chairman Gavin De Salis told Reuters Insider television that Libyan crude oil, prized for its high yield of valuable light products such as gasoline and for its low sulphur content, was also quite waxy, which could clog up pipelines if they had been left unused for some time.

Brazil boom takes world fuel markets by surprise
RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - When Brazil discovered huge offshore crude reserves four years ago, state oil company Petrobras  sketched out plans to become a regional fuel exporter.
Rapid domestic economic growth and rising fossil fuels use has turned it into a recurrent fuels importer, with occasional gasoline purchases in 2010 evolving into regular imports that may not cease until the end of the decade.

LME copper up 0.2 pct on hopes of Fed stimulus
SHANGHAI, Aug 24 (Reuters) - LME copper inched up, supported by arbitrage trading and hopes of more monetary stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve later this week.
"The market is really focusing on pure expectation that the Federal Reserve will deliver some form of stimulus," said Commodity Broking Services Managing Director Jonathan Barratt.  

China primary aluminium imports seen rising on prices
HONG KONG, Aug 23 (Reuters) - China's imports of primary aluminium may increase in August as demand from fabricators in the southern Guangdong province rises because of steady Chinese prices, traders said on Tuesday.
Increased demand from China, the world's top consumer and producer of aluminium, has driven up premiums for spot aluminium imports about 20 percent this month.

Gold rebounds on Japan downgrade, physical buying
SINGAPORE, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Gold rebounded more than 1 percent  after posting its worst drop in 18 months, as risk appetite retreated after Moody's downgraded Japan's debt rating and strong buying interest in Asia's physical market lent support.
"A huge drop in prices triggered some buying interest," said Ong Yi Ling, an analyst at Phillip Futures, adding that Moody's downgrading Japan may spur some safe-haven interest in gold as well.

International Tower Hill ups size of Alaska resource
TORONTO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Miner International Tower Hill (ITH)  said on Tuesday it had increased the estimate of the gold resource at its Livengood project in Alaska and said it will cost about $1.61 billion to develop the mine.
The Vancouver-based company boosted the total resource at the deposit, located below the Arctic Circle about 115 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska, to 20.6 million ounces from 13.3 million ounces.

Tin set to re-test record highs on China demand
LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Tin is likely to return to the record high it hit in April later this year, after being the laggard in the London Metal Exchange, as an expected rise in demand from China's manufacturing and electronics sectors combines with a tight supply outlook.
Analysts say China's economy is set to grow and its demand for tin to increase as long as the global economy avoids a recession. That demand will also get a boost as China takes advantage of cheaper pricing in Europe to turn net importer following months of exporting large quantities of the metal.

Copper stands its ground in markets mayhem
LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Robust Asian demand and a threat to supplies will keep copper price falls relatively modest over the next six months, regardless of the volatility that has whipped global financial markets on rising fears of a recession in Western nations.
The MSCI world equity index has fallen around 19 percent since early May and U.S. crude oil  about 25 percent, while copper has lost around 10 percent.

Record price to pinch India's festive gold demand
MUMBAI, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Record high prices could pinch gold demand in India, the world's biggest consumer, during the key festival buying season in September and October, but investment demand will help ensure record imports in 2011, the head of India's leading trade body told Reuters.    
"If prices stay at current levels, demand will be lower during the festival season. But if prices fall to 25,000 rupees (per 10 grams), then it will rise," Prithviraj Kothari, president of the Bombay Bullion Association, said in an interview on Monday.

Reliance's gold investors more than trebled since March
MUMBAI, Aug 23(Reuters) - The number of investors at Reliance Capital's gold exchange traded fund (ETF), India's third-biggest gold fund, have more than trebled since March, as a wobbly global economy makes stocks and bonds unattractive, a top company official said on Tuesday.
"This is an encouraging trend especially since the industry has been witnessing negative growth in folios," Sundeep Sikka, CEO at Reliance Capital Asset Management, told Reuters.