Soy, corn limit-up as ags lead commodity rebound

By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. agricultural markets roared for a second straight day on Tuesday, leading what analysts said could be a broad-based rebound in commodities after the rout of late last week.

Corn and soybeans futures on the Chicago Board of Trade ended with the highest gains possible in a session.

Crops like cocoa and coffee also surged, settling up 6 percent and 3 percent, respectively, in New York.

Other commodity mainstays like U.S. crude oil, gold and copper closed higher as well.

The Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index, which tracks prices of 19 commodity futures, rose 1.6 percent.

The rebound was partly fueled by a fresh fall in the dollar after a report showing U.S. consumer confidence for March at five-year lows.

But analysts said some of the strong showing could also be due to the thinking that grains, energy and metals markets were oversold last week as investors took profit to cover losses in stocks and other financials.

Phil Flynn at Chicago's Alaron Trading cited fresh investment inflows into commodities as the reason for crude oil's first positive close in four sessions.

"Crude got a boost on the perception that money was coming back into commodities," Flynn said.

But there was scepticism on whether the trend would last.

"It will be interesting to see whether the flood of money that has recently left commodities continues to move back into the recovering stock and bond markets," said Edward Meir, an energy and metals markets analyst at MF Global in New York.

In CBOT corn, the benchmark May contract rose the maximum 20 cents allowed in a session to settle at $5.44-3/4 per bushel. Two other futures months in CBOT corn rose 20 cents as well, helped by a weaker dollar and worries about possible slow seedings in some parts of the U.S. corn belt.

The soybean market, which already hit limit-up on Monday, repeated the feat on Tuesday, with benchmark May rising the 50-cent limit to $13.07 a bushel. Most other contract months in CBOT soybeans hit limit-up as well.

The rally in corn and soybeans also lifted CBOT wheat for May, which closed up 47-1/2 cents at $10.67-1/2 per bushel.

Oil prices rose slightly, ending a sell-off that began last Tuesday.

U.S. crude settled up 36 cents at $101.22 a barrel. London Brent crude rose 74 cents to $100.60 a barrel.

U.S. gold futures finished nearly 2 percent higher as the weaker dollar prompted buying in the precious metal, which investors use as a hedge against falling currencies.

The active U.S. gold contract for April delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up $16.30, or 1.8 percent, at $935 an ounce.

In copper, COMEX's May contract settled up 5.60 cents, or 1.6 percent, at $3.6785 a lb.

(Editing by Christian Wiessner)

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