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COMMODITIES – Wheat In 4-Day Rally, Gold Retreats As Dollar Rises

* Wheat is 4-day rally
* Rise in dollar weakens gold
* Oil down 3 percent on high stocks
* RJ/CRB index down 1 pct

CHICAGO, Nov 12 (Reuters) – U.S. wheat rose for the fourth straight session Thursday, surging 8 percent so far this week, as a flood of investment money overwhelmed bearish fundamentals of ample supplies and the sluggish pace of exports. Gold futures retreated from a record high posted earlier in the day as the dollar rallied, while oil fell more than $2 after a sharp rise in domestic supplies in the United States.

The dollar index, a measure of the greenback’s values against a basket of six currencies, rose after the government said U.S. jobless claims fell to 502,000 in the latest week from a revised 514,000 the previous week. The 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies CRB index fell 1 percent by 1730 GMT as oil and metals slumped. Wheat at the Chicago Board of Trade rallied amid buying by investment funds and support from gains in corn and soybeans. The gains in wheat came despite fundamentals of abundant supplies and the slow export pace working against the market.

Egypt, one of the world’s largest wheat importers, on Thursday bought 295,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, which was prices much lower than the sole offer to sell U.S. wheat. “We are just unable to compete with wheat from the Black Sea region,” an export trader said, adding that quality issues raised by Egypt were adding to the problem.

Futures were also supported by rain slowing the pace of the wheat harvest in Western Australia, the country’s top grain exporting states. CBOT wheat for December delivery rose 4 cents to $5.35-1/2 per bushel. January soybeans were up 15 cents, or 1.6 percent, at $9.87. December corn was down 4 cents, or 1 percent, at $3.90. Gold fell back from a record high as the dollar recovered some ground after weekly U.S. jobless data gave hope for the recovery of the economy from a severe recession.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits last week fell to the lowest level since January, showing the hard-hit labor market may be slowing improving.

GOLD’S OUTLOOK STILL POSITIVE

“The gold price is really struggling with the $1,110 mark,” said Tobias Merath, head of commodity research at Credit Suisse. “It will probably take a couple of days for us to break higher from here.” Despite gold’s consolidation, he said the picture was still positive for the metal. The spot price of gold, which reflects trading in bullion, hit a record high of $1,122.85 an ounce, versus $1,117.45 late in New York on Wednesday.

Benchmark U.S. December gold futures fell $7.80 to $1,107 an ounce. Oil fell nearly 3 percent after data from the Energy Information Administration showed a bigger-than-expected 1.8 million barrel rise in crude stocks. Crude oil was down $2.25, or nearly 3 percent, at $77.03 per barrel.

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