Palm | Kelapa Sawit

DJI- NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Wednesday, with Wall Street retreating from its biggest gain in a month as investors turned to safe-havens on worries that Spain might
light a new fire under the euro zone debt crisis.

Risk appetite faded as concerns about the financial health of Spain - Europe's fourth-largest economy - pushed up demand for U.S. Treasuries and government bonds of the euro zone's most stable nation, Germany.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> ended down 82.79 points, or 0.63 percent, at 13,032.75. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 5.64 points, or 0.41 percent, at 1,385.14. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was down 11.37 points, or 0.37 percent, at 3,031.45.

U.S. Treasuries rose as the prospect of a longer-term Spanish debt auction made safe-haven U.S. Treasuries a popular investment choice. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 5/32, with the yield at 1.977 percent. [US/]

The euro fell against the dollar after a brief rebound that hinted at some risk play in currencies. But the biggest surprise in forex was sterling's rise to 19-month highs on signs that there may be less pressure for monetary easing in Britain. [FRX/]

NYMEX- NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures fell on Wednesday after a government report showed oil inventories rose more than expected last week to post the biggest four-week increase in over three years.

The rise in crude inventories outweighed larger-than-expected drawdowns in gasoline and distillate stockpiles.

U.S. crude stocks rose 3.86 million barrels in the week to April 13, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said, much more than the forecast in a Reuters poll for a gain of 1.4 million barrels. [EIA/S]

* On the New York Mercantile Exchange, May crude fell $1.53, or 1.47 percent, to settle at $102.67 a barrel, having traded from $102.19 to $104.51. The intraday low neared the 100-day moving average of $101.86.

* Taiwan's state-owned oil firm CPC Corp is reducing imports from Iran and will follow the schedule of U.S. sanctions in deciding when to cut them completely, its chairman said, joining
other Asian buyers in scaling back dealings with Tehran. [ID:nL6E8FI8S1]

* Japan will cut its Iranian crude purchases by almost 80 percent in April compared to the first two months of the year as buyers comply with Western sanctions, trade sources said. The cuts, amounting to 250,000 barrels per day, are the steepest yet by the four Asian nations that buy most of Iran's 2.2 million bpd of exports. [ID:nL3E8FI49W]

* U.S. regulators have narrowed the universe of big commodity market players that will get slapped with an expensive "swap dealer" tag, but left room to later adjust rules that are being finalized on Wednesday. [ID:nL2E8FI44Y]

* Libya's National Oil Corporation said it has kept the May official selling price on its key export crude Es Sider unchanged from April. Prices for Mellitah, Brega and Sirteca were lowered by 10-15 cents a barrel while only the price of Bu Attifel was raised by 10 cents a barrel.[ID:nL6E8FIB21]

* China is expected to launch crude oil futures within the year, a senior government official said, as the world's second-largest oil consumer and crude buyer aims to increase its say in oil pricing. [ID:nL3E8FI2SZ]

CBOT SOYBEAN- Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures closed lower on Wednesday on profit-taking near the market's 7-1/2-month high and on a firm dollar.

* Soymeal and soyoil closed lower.

* Pressure also stemmed from lower crude oil, weak equities and falling precious metals.

* USDA on Wednesday said 120,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans were sold to China for the 2012/13 marketing year. [ID:nW1E8E8025]

* Moderate rainfall of 0.50 inch to 1.00 inch Wednesday through Saturday in the Midwest will slow corn seedings but plantings are already well ahead of average. "It will slow down plantings, not a perfect forecast but certainly not a disaster,"said John Dee, meteorologist for Global Weather Monitoring.

* Dee said rains would begin in the north on Wednesday, spread to the western Midwest by Thursday and move into the eastern Midwest on Friday and Saturday.

FCPO- SINGAPORE, April 18 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures slipped on Wednesday as investors feared that the euro zone debt crisis could hurt demand for the edible oil, although losses were curbed as a successful Spanish debt sale helped ease some worries.

Global markets including crude oil futures rebounded after Spain's debt auction turned out better than expected, although palm oil investors were not too optimistic especially as Malaysian exports slowed down for the first time after a strong run since early March.[ID:nL6E8FH400]

"Traders would have expected it because for the past few weeks we have seen that the export numbers have been quite impressive and we don't expect exports to continue on that trend. There are macroeconomic fears that weigh on exports," said Ker Chung Yang, commodities analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

"It's not something that's going to surprise us but a bearish export number is going to weigh on the market."

Benchmark July palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 0.7 percent to close at 3,479 ringgit ($1,136) per tonne.

Traded volumes stood at 25,759 lots of 25 tonnes each, fewer than the usual 25,000 lots.

Palm oil is expected to fall to 3,402 ringgit per tonne as it could have completed a consolidation, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. [ID:nL3E8FI1NL]

But tight palm oil stocks in No.2 producer Malaysia remained a bullish factor as it reinforced views that the shortfall in global oilseed supply could worsen amid the drought situation in soy-producing South America. [ID:nK7E7ND021]

Cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance will issue export data for April 1-20 on Friday, which market watchers expect to remain bearish after a 15 percent fall seen in the first half of April from a month ago. [PALM/ITS][PALM/SGS]

REGIONAL EQUITY- April 18 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Wednesday, with the Philippines at a record high, on improved demand for the region's riskier assets after a well-received Spanish debt auction and positive U.S. corporate earnings.

The Philippines <.PSI> rose 0.6 percent to a record high of 5,219.29 in strong volume, surpassing Tuesday's peak of 5,186.52 and with banks leading gainers.

Financials also helped the Malaysian bourse <.KLSE> add 0.2 percent, with $29.79 million in foreign inflows, while energy counters helped the Thai exchange <.SETI> reverse the previous
session's loss to end 0.7 percent firmer.

Despite $15.2 million in foreign outflows, Indonesia <.JKSE> gained 0.2 percent to the highest since April 5. Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> added 0.5 percent to a more than two-week high, with Singapore Exchange Ltd up 1.5 percent after reporting better-than-expected earnings.