Liffe coffee seen steady : Liffe coffee could go either way,technical analysts said but they expected it to stick to its recent range. Traders called it to open unchanged. Coffee needs to retest the highs above $1,643 to show that it can make it back towards the early August high at $1,675, analysts said. And although they expected to see a move back up eventually, in the shorter term they felt a retest of $1,595 or just more consolidation was likely. New York arabica coffee futures ended narrowly mixed in light, sideways trading on Wednesday. Liffe coffee held onto its early gains in light trade and traders said the market appeared to be quite happy in its current range. "The market seems quite happy with the range of $1,600-$1,643 in London," one trader said. He said funds were currently short in London and were not likely to add to their positions unless prices fell below $1,595 basis November. However, there was no real news to make the market move. A top executive for Swiss giant Nestle SA onWednesday said world coffee and cocoa prices were unlikely to change "in the months to come." Helmut Maucher, Swiss-based chairman of the board of Nestle's headquarters in Vevey, told reporters in Mexico that prices could be expected to remain low as long as global economies were hit by financial crisis in Asia and Russia.

Shanghai copper futures end down: Shanghai copper futures closed down slightly in slow trade on Thursday due to overnight losses on the New York Commodity Exchange (Comex), traders said. The most actively traded December 1998 contract ended at 16,830 yuan ($2,033) per tonne, falling 20 yuan from Wednesday's close. It opened at an intraday high of 16,860 and hit a low of 16,790. Comex copper futures ended sharply lower on Wednesday, driven by the largest single-day increase in LME stocks in 14 months, traders said. December copper ended at 74.40 US cents lb, down 1.50 cents from Tuesday's close.

Dalian soybean futures end weaker: Dalian soybean futures ended a touch weaker on Thursday as the market was reeling from Wednesday's sharp losses, traders said. The retreat of floods in northeast province of Heilongjiang, China's major soybean-producing region, also cooled the speculative fervor, they said. The key November 1998 contract ended at 2,660 yuan ($321) per tonne, falling two yuan from Wednesday's close. It opened at 2,660, hitting an intraday high of 2,675 and a low of 2,655. "The sharp losses on Wednesday dealt quite a blow," a trader said. Soybean futures fell on Wednesday on institutional selling amid talk that the Dalian Commodity Exchange had told some members to trim their holdings, traders said. Some exchange members had built large positions when floods in threatened this year's crop, and the exchange was said to have sounded warnings, they said. But an exchange official told Reuters on Thursday that the recent price movements did not warrant special measures to curb trading.Traders said overnight gains on the Chicago Board of Trade had little impact on the Dalian market on Thursday.

Tokyo naphtha flat: Tokyo naphtha maintained Wednesday levels in afternoon trade on Thursday despite a dip in overnight crude prices, as it was buttressed by healthy buying interest, traders said. Open-spec naphtha, which is Asia's benchmark forward contract, was quoted at $128.00/$129.00 per tonne for second-half November delivery. It was sold by the Japanese unit of a European oil firm at $128.50 on Wednesday. Traders said underlying naphtha sentiment was somewhat bullish in Asia in the face of ongoing crude throughput cuts as well as seasonal refinery maintenance closures. In low sulphur waxy residue (LSWR), a European major was said to have sold 400,000 barrels of September cargo at a premium of a "few cents" per barrel to the Pertamina formula. The cargo is likely to be destined for the United States or Europe, traders said.

Pertamina studies formula change: Indonesian state-oil company Pertamina is studying whether to drop the Asian Petroleum Price Index (APPI) from the formula it uses to set official crude prices, a Pertamina official said on Thursday. He said Pertamina was simply carrying out a study on the use of APPI in the formula but that no proposals had been made and there was no timeframe involved. Changing the formula would need government approval. Indonesian mines and energy minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said on Thursday that the government had no intention of changing the formula. But at the same time he was unaware of the Pertamina study, he said. The Pertamina official said the company was studying how closely APPI reflected the price of the crudes in the international market. The formula is used to set the official selling prices of Indonesian crudes, or the Indonesian Crude Price (ICP). It makes use of APPI and two other pricing services --Platt's and RIM. Crude oil buyers in Singapore, including termcontract buyers, said they have not been informed of any study, or of any potential change in the formula. APPI was unavailable for immediate comment.

Nymex crude stays low: Nymex crude futures stayed marginally lower in late afternoon trading on ACCESS in Asia on Thursday, while Simex Brent turned higher. Nymex October crude was last traded at $13.66 per barrel, down one cent from the New York close. Simex October Brent was last traded at $12.48 per barrel, again of two cents from London's close, but on the trade of just four lots. Earlier it had traded a cent lower. Traders said the market was looking for fresh factors too ffer direction. Hurricane Earl has swept through the Gulf of Mexico and some oil rigs are starting to be remanned, offsetting a potentially bullish element in the market. Iraq said on Wednesday it would carry out unspecified measures if the UN security council was to adopt a US/British proposal to suspend the regular review of trade sanctions against Baghdad. The Iraqi news pushed prices higher briefly, traders said,but was not enough to sustain a rally into Thursday trading in Asia.