Cotton futures settle low
Cotton futures on the New York Cotton Exchange settled slightly lower on Thursday on some local and speculative selling despite a strong weekly export report, participants said. According to the weekly US department of agriculture study, 167,300 bales during the week of Oct 13-19 were sold for exports in the current marketing year, 72 per cent above the previous week and more than double the fou R-week average. Turkey was once again mentioned as the main buyer this week. Shipments totaled 74,800 running bales, 39 per cent above the previous week and 7 per cent over the four-week average, the USDA said.

BTime for a glass of wine...
A glance at your watch may now no longer mean simply that you want to know the time. It may mean you're thirsty. Thanks to the "Wine O'Clock", the wine connoisseur can carry all the information he needs about the best vintages on his wrist, with a turn of the winding mechanism sufficient to turn up the necessary data. The "Wine O'Clock", marketed by the Taillevent wine merchants in Paris, is the brain-child of Yves Michel who offers variants for both Bordeaux and Beaujolais wines. After setting the vintage at any figure between 1945 and 1998, a twist of the winder enables the wearer to determine the quality - scored out of 20 - for up to 31 different varieties of each wine. The quality-rating is indicated either in green, which means the wine is good for immediate consumption, or in red, which means it is best left to mature for a few more years. The quartz-driven watches are on sale at 300 francs (us $39) each.

HindCopper seeks Rs 100 cr from govt Hindustan Copper Limited (HindCopper), a potentially sick PSU, has sought Rs 100 crore from the government to carry out its expansion plans to help it turn around. HindCopper sources said the proposal was put before the government and the seal of approval was yet to be given. The PSU had been also put on the disinvestment list where 50 per cent of the government holding would be sold off to a partner. The bids for the disinvestment programme had been alreadyopened, sources said. The copper PSU would utilise the money for expanding thesmelting and refining capacities at its Ghatsila and Khettri mines. This, which formed a part of the turn-around plan, had been approved by the government, sources said.

Federal officials blame Aventis US Federal officials on Thursday blamed the unauthorized appearance of geneticially engineered corn in the food supply solely on its manufacturer - Aventis SA of France. The company, which designed Starlink corn to be toxic to insect pests, failed in its responsibility for segregating Starlink from breeds of corn that might be eaten by humans, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture said. The department is still trying to locate about 1.2 million bushels of the 80 million bushels of Starlink planted for the 2000 season.

Petroproducts demand slump in oct
The inevitable seems to have happened at last in the petroproducts market. Skyrocketing prices have at last turned off consumers, who now would rather buy less than buy at astronomical prices. The consequent increases in petro-product prices have obviously pinched consumers beyond the point of tolerance. In October, the surging demand for petro products seem have tapered off, thanks to the high prices of crude which have jumped by over 240 per cent over a year and a half - from $10 a barrel in February 1999 to $33-plus a barrel currently.

Demand for industrial-use metals down
Analysts are reporting a sharp downturn in demand for industrial-use metals in the third quarter, but they differ over their interpretations of the trend. Some, like ABN Amro Bank's David Bird, say the sharp decline points to the likelihood that global growth will soon slow markedly the scenario economists dub the "hard landing." Others, like Macquarie Bank's Kamal Naqvi, say declining metals prices might not mean a sharp slide in the world's overall gross domestic product is inevitable, but could signal a slowdown in industrial production.

IPSTA to raise pepper futures contract The India Pepper and Spice Trade Association (Ipsta) plans tor raise the futures contract size to around 15 tn from the current 2.5 tn permitted for the domestic trade in pepper futures. This, according to Ipsta president Kishore Shamji, is to accommodate the new set of foreign players who are expected to join the International Commodity Exchange (ICE) wing of Ipsta which plans to commence dollar denominated futures trading in black pepper.