SILVER FUTURES LOWER AT FINISH

Another record price paid for gold touched off commis sion house short‐covering at the beginning of the trading in silver futures on the New York Commodity Exchange here yesterday. However. a lack of follow‐through touched off profit taking and liquidation that brought, prices to their lows by early afternoon in moderate trading.

Covering and light buying halved the loss and the market held relatively steady during much of the afternoon with buying and selling about even lyamatched. A 1.2‐million‐ounce drop in Comex warehouse sil ver stocks produced little market impact.

At the close of trading, silver futures prices had declined 60 to.70 points (hundredths of cent an ounce) on 2,764 sales. The September contract, the )usiest with 1,138 sales, dropped to $1.594 from $1.601 an ounce the day before.

Prices of cotton futures closed $1.65 a bale. lower to $1.55. higher on the New York Cotton Exchange. The market showed early steadiness, fea‐, tured by trade buying of the new‐crop months and some de.; mand from speculators for the nearby July contract. However, liquidation developed in that contract, which is the last of the 1971‐crop trading months. This brought the the price belowl the previous close while the other contracts finished higher.

On the Chicago. Board of Trade, new crop ‘soybeans futures prices advanced nearly 6% cents a bushel but closed under the highs after a late wave of profit taking. Soybean meal futures prices were up $1.75 a ton at one time while oil also showed an early adVance but closed slightly lower.

Prices in the ,major pits were strong with the opening bell and early buying appeared to be of a speculative nature. The buying resulted when word spread that some sections of the South and Southeast needed rain for the, new crops.

At the close of trading, soybean futures prices were up 2⅛ to 5⅝ cents a bushel; wheat, off ¼ to up ⅓ cent; corn, unchanged to up ½ cent and oats, up ⅝ to 1 cent a bushel.