Futures Trading

Not even an extraordinarily cohesive effort by oil producers to rein in production was enough to keep crude oil futures from falling Monday in the face of more bad news about the global economy. Meanwhile, the lack of demand that has depressed oil markets since last summer was beginning to show up in retail gasoline prices. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline fell 0.9 of a cent to $1.

The price of gold surged to a record high Tuesday as investors' fears about the economy and the stock market added new luster to the metal's reputation as a haven. Near-term gold futures in New York rocketed $18.40 to $878 an ounce. That surpassed the intraday high of $873 reached in futures trading on Jan. 21, 1980 -- the last hurrah of gold's wild rally of that era.

The price of coffee surged Thursday, hitting its highest level in a decade, as continuing weakness in the dollar kept many commodity markets in rally mode. Coffee futures for May delivery rose 3.4 cents, or 2.1%, to $1.675 a pound in New York. Earlier in the day, the beans traded at $1.68, the highest price for a most actively traded contract since February 1998. Coffee is up 41% in the last year.

Fundamentals of supply and demand, not speculative trading, explain the record rise in crude oil prices, a preliminary report by a government interagency group studying commodity markets says. "Current oil prices and the increase in oil prices between January 2003 and June 2008 are largely due to fundamental supply and demand factors," the report found.

If you were hoping to buy gold for a lot less than $1,000 an ounce, you're getting your chance. But buying now may be akin to catching a falling anvil made of the stuff: You could easily get hurt, at least in the short run. Gold plummeted Monday, leading the latest sell-off in commodities as investors and traders continued to cash out of hard assets. Near-term gold futures in New York tumbled $36.30, or 4.2%, to $821.50 an ounce. That wiped out the last of the metal's year-to-date gains.

Wheat futures prices hit fresh record highs Wednesday, extending the powerful rally of recent months amid expectations that global stockpiles will fall to the lowest levels in 26 years. Bad weather in many growing regions around the planet has driven prices up. September wheat futures in Chicago jumped 21.5 cents to $7.42 a bushel. The price was $4.38 at the end of March.

Natural gas futures plunged 10% to a two-year low Thursday after U.S. government data showed record supplies. Industry officials said homeowners who depend on natural gas for heat should see lower bills this winter, assuming normal temperatures. "It looks much better than last year for natural gas consumers," said Mark Stultz of the Natural Gas Supply Assn. October natural gas futures fell 55.7 cents to settle at $4.892 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold fever is back. The question is: For how long? The precious metal leaped above $1,000 an ounce Friday and stayed in four-digit territory, closing at record highs. The steady ascent of gold in recent months -- it is up more than 15% since April -- partly reflects a simultaneous slide in the value of the dollar against other currencies, analysts say. Some gold buyers are also worried about inflation and are skeptical about the ability of any currency to hold its value as they nervously watch the world's central banks flood the financial system with money.

The red-hot market in commodities cooled a bit Monday, sending a key index of prices in the sector to its biggest loss in nine months. But the commodity that matters most to many consumers -- crude oil -- slipped just fractionally from Friday's record high. Tumbling prices for cocoa, soybeans, gold, coffee and other hard assets drove the Reuters-CRB index of 17 commodity futures prices down 5.71 points, or 2%, to 313.49, the steepest one-day drop since June 2.