Corn and copper rose for a fourth day while gold and oil also extended gains on Thursday as investors took heart from a falling dollar and central bank moves to avert deep recession, sparking talk that markets may have hit bottom.
A number of rebounding commodities are on track for their biggest weekly gains in years, but that may be too little to avert their worst month on record after investors fled riskier assets for cash or to meet margin calls en masse.
But risk appetite appeared to be recovering further on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei surging 10 percent after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered an expected 50 point rate cut and China's central bank also cut rates.
'One of the reasons oil is going up is because of these rate cuts. It may mean that we have seen a bottom in the stock markets,' said Tony Nunan, assistant manager of risk management at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.
U.S. light crude for December delivery rose $2.72 to $70.22 a barrel by 0625 GMT, adding to Wednesday's 7.6 percent gain after the Fed cut triggered the dollar's biggest daily fall in 23 years. The U.S. dollar fell another 1.9 percent on Thursday, measured against a basket of six major currencies.
OPEC's comments about a possible additional cut in supply also lent support to oil, which has more than halved from its record high above $147 struck in mid-July, and is down by 30 percent so far this month.
The Reuters-Jeffries CRB index of 19 commodities futures rose six percent on Wednesday for its largest percentage gain since 2005, but it was down more than 20 percent for the month, putting it on track for its largest monthly decline.
Copper has gained around 26 percent this week but is also on track for its biggest monthly decline, a fall of about 25 percent, since 1977.
London Metal Exchange copper for delivery in three months rose 1.9 percent, or $90, to $4,745 a tonne by 0702 GMT, adding to Wednesday's $525 gain.
'The down move has to bottom out at some point. We have seen some real lows tested -- our bottom for copper is around $3,500 to $4,000,' MF Global analyst Edward Meir said.
Direction later on Thursday will be geared towards U.S. third quarter GDP data, which economists see falling by 0.5 percent versus a 2.8 percent rise in the second quarter.
Gold rose for a fourth straight day to near a one-week high, trading at $765.50 an ounce, up $11.20 from New York's notional close on Wednesday, when it hit an intraday high of $773.40 an ounce.
But the yellow metal is still down nearly 12 percent since the start of the month, on track for its biggest monthly decline since 1983, as an earlier rush for safe-haven assets gave way to a cross-commodity sell-off by investors scrambling for cash.
Silver and palladium rose to their highest in two weeks and platinum hit a 1-week high.
Chicago Board of Trade corn for December delivery gained 2.7 percent to $4.32- per bushel by 0525 GMT, adding to a 7-plus percent rise the previous day, when several contracts hit the daily limit of a 30 cent per bushel change in price.
Front-month corn, which has risen about 16 percent this week, is on its way to chalking up its biggest weekly gain this year, outstripping a 12.8 percent gain in mid-June before it hit a record-high $7.99- per bushel on June 27.
'The rise has been purely exchange driven,' said Luke Chandler, a global grain commodity markets analyst at Rabobank in Sydney.
'Over the last couple of months, we've seen commodity prices come off sharply as the U.S. dollar rallied and overnight we've seen a correction of that.'
A sustained recovery depended on improved demand and a higher level of export sales, he said.
Soybean futures for November delivery rose 2.3 percent to $9.58- per bushel, adding to a 6.7 percent gain on Wednesday.
December wheat added 3 percent to $5.78 per bushel after soaring 9 percent on Wednesday. Wheat remains well below its February record high of $13.49-1/2, when supply shortages were feared.
'The U.S. dollar's weakening has given room for U.S. commodity prices to surge and that's brought a little bit more confidence back into the market,' said Chandler.
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