"Oil prices were undermined by worries about the demand outlook, while grains held up in the wake of the Russian food aid package, but grains may have bottomed out for now anyway," said Bill O'Neill, director of commodities research for Merrill Lynch in New York.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for delivery in December slipped to their lowest level in 10 days, ending down 49 cents at $13.38 a barrel.

December heating oil ended down 1.06 cents at 37.45 cents a gallon, while December gasoline lost 1.30 cents to end at 40.80 cents a gallon.

World oil demand is proving even weaker than expected, and the prospects for any significant recovery in demand next year have diminished, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said on Monday.

The agency reduced its estimate of global demand for1999 by 400,000 barrels per day to 75.6 million barrels. Demand in the fourth quarter of 1998 was sliced by a large 600,000 barrels per day for growth on average this year of just 550,000 barrels to 74.3 million barrels per day.

The agency said it had recently received surprisingly low demand statistics for the United States, Mexico, South Korea and China.

Grain and oilseed prices received continued support from news Friday that the United States and Russia had come to an agreement on a US food aid package.

"That kind of supported the whole floor," said Dan Cekander, head of grain research for FIMAT Futures Inc in Chicago.

At the Chicago Board of Trade, soybeans for November delivery ended 3 cents higher at $5.67-1/4 a bushel, the highest level in three months.

Wheat futures ended with small gains after a good showing in a weekly export shipment report issued by the government, traders said.

"We had very strong wheat export sales," said Tom Levis, a grain analyst with Prudential Securities. "Thenumbers were much bigger than people were looking for."

The US agriculture department said export shipments of wheat totalled 27.94 million bushels in the week ended November 5, well above trade estimates for 15 to 22 million bushels, traders said.

CBOT floor traders said an agreement by Brazil to accept some US wheat imports was also a bullish factor in Monday's trade.

On Monday, Brazilian officials signed an agreement with the United States that will allow Brazil to import hard red winter wheat. Brazil has banned US wheat imports since 1995 due to certain plant diseases.

December wheat futures ended 3 cents higher at $2.93 a bushel.

Corn futures ended little changed ahead of Tuesday's US agriculture department crop report, traders said. Many traders expect the government to raise its 1998/99 corn production figure.

December corn was contained to a narrow 1-1/4 cent a bushel range before ending 1/4 cent higher at $2.17 a bushel.