CORRECTED: Cocoa Drops, Metals Jump on Weak Dollar
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Cocoa prices sank on Wednesday as  exporters in top-grower Ivory Coast kept up with the arrival of  the new crop, which was halted several times this month by an  outbreak of civil violence and a farmers strike.
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Gold prices in New York fell from a six-month high after US jobless claims dropped to the lowest in six weeks, spurring speculation that the dollar may gain, boosting the cost of precious metals for buyers holding euros.
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Precious metals prices soared Monday, with gold and platinum hitting fresh highs on a falling U.S. dollar and supply concerns fed by a fourth day of mine stoppages in South Africa.
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The dollar fell to a 7-1/2 month low  against the euro on Wednesday and a three-month trough on the  Swiss franc as a selloff on the back of recent worries about  the U.S. economy and interest rate outlook gained momentum. The  yen came under pressure briefly as Tokyo stocks fell 1.65  percent. But given the export-oriented economy's reliance on  oil, a recent retreat in oil prices underpinned the currency  near this week's three-month high on the dollar.
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The dollar dropped against most major  currencies on Wednesday after mixed data on U.S. durable goods  orders and weaker-than-expected new home sales did little to  brighten the U.S. economic outlook.
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The global flight from risk knocked precious metals again on Friday, with gold falling below $650 an ounce for the first time in three weeks as shaky global stock markets prompted investors to reduce positions in commodities.
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Gold fell to a near four-month low on Monday as the market tried to guess what the IMF might say about using its huge gold reserves to help finance debt relief for poor countries.
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The dollar slipped to a fresh record  low against the euro and a multi-month trough against the yen  on concerns about U.S. budget and current account deficits,  weighing on Asian stocks, and sending gold to 16-year highs.
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The dollar was mixed against other major currencies in European trading Tuesday morning. Gold prices fell.
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Gold prices fall as investors question whether the metal's record-breaking recent surge had gone too far too quickly.
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Plus: IBM net income inches higher, despite legal bill...Nokia sees lower profit but strong sales...Adobe strong despite drop.
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Gold prices plunged on Monday to below   $600 an ounce for the first time in more than two months and   silver lost 8 percent as falling energy prices and a weak   technical outlook sent sell signals to investors.
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A weak U.S. dollar is expected to affect profitability.
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World cocoa prices rose from intraday  lows, but exports from the Ivory Coast, the key global  supplier, remain on hold after mob violence and military  clashes paralyze business in the West African country, traders  said on Tuesday.
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The U.S. dollar sagged to a new all-time low Thursday against the euro, which rose to US$1.3667  --  the latest in a series of spikes in thin, volatile year-end trading.
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The dollar slipped to a record low yesterday against the euro in thin, volatile holiday trading. The euro peaked at $1.3667 before easing slightly to $1.3648
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(InfoWorld) - The declining value of the U.S. dollar should allow PC vendors to offer bargains to people living in the euro zone, while U.S. consumers probably won't feel much of a pinch, according to a leading economist. The U.S. currency has suffered from a decision by the Federal Open Market Committee to lower the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 4.75 percent. That's the rate financial institutions charge each other for overnight loans and it has a big impact on overall interest rates in a country. The lower rate hurts the dollar because it causes investments to flow out of the U.S. to find higher interest rates elsewhere, such as England where the rate is 5.75 percent, or Australia where it is 6.5 percent. The Fed said it reduced the rate to stave off credit problems associated with theÂ bad-loans crisis in the U.S. housing market. A negative side affect for people in the U.S. is that the falling currency is leading to higher prices for some commodities. The price of oil, for example, rose to a record $83 a barrel on Thursday, largely due to the cut in the federal fund rate, according to Robert Mundell, professor of economics at Columbia University and the 1999 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics. Oil is traded globally in U.S. dollars, but oil traders have bid the price per barrel higher to offset the declining value of the U.S. dollar. Higher oil prices raise fuel costs for consumers, including heating oil and gasoline, and potentially mean higher prices for airplane tickets and shipping rates. The situation is far different for computer components, despite the fact they are also bought and sold in U.S. dollars around the world. While oil producers have the power to raise prices in order to compensate for the weaker dollar, makers of computer parts, for which the market is far more competitive, do not have the same type of leverage. The good news for people in the euro zone is that the euro rose to a record high against the dollar after the Fed's rate decision, so people in countries that use the euro should see bargains for a number of IT items. Currency traders bid the price of the euro to $1.41 on Friday, up from $1.37 at the beginning of September and $1.39 a day ahead of Tuesday's Fed rate cut. By comparison, the euro bought only $0.82 at its low point in October 2000. The stronger European currency should bring more bang for the buck, so to speak, unless retailers take advantage of better exchange rates to boost their own profits. For Americans, the news isn't bad. Despite the decline in the currency, component prices probably won't rise, Mundell said, because most of the computer industry is located in the U.S. and Asia. "Asia is a U.S. dollar area," he said, during a briefing with reporters in Taipei on Friday. Computer components are bought and sold in the U.S. currency, and nations in the region generally tie their currencies to the U.S. dollar. In addition, manufacturers are constantly working to lower costs, and these reductions are valued in U.S. dollar terms. One example of a computer component traded globally in U.S. dollars isÂ DRAM, where prices have fallen dramaticallyÂ this year. The contract price of the most widely used DRAM, 512Mb DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) chips that run at 667MHz, dropped to $1.75 each as of Thursday, down 70.5 percent since the beginning of the year, according to DRAMeXchange Technology, which runs an online trading site for the chips. The chip prices are falling because producers are churning out too many chips and causing a glut on the market.