COMMODITIES-Brent oil down 7th day, wheat jumps on Ukraine ban

* Brent at 12-week low; weeklong loss worst in 2 years
* Copper ends near 6-week lows, gold slips below $1,700
* Cocoa down 4 pct, biggest commods loss in US session
* Wheat bucks downtrend, rallying on Ukraine export ban

By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Brent crude fell for a seventh
straight session on Wednesday, hitting 12-week lows after a
sharp build in U.S. oil stockpiles, while most other commodities
slid too as the dollar remained strong against the euro.
Copper closed near six-week lows, and gold slipped below
$1,700 per ounce for the first time since September.
Cocoa futures tumbled 4 percent, falling more than any other
commodity in Wednesday's U.S. session, on technical liquidation
executed through computer-triggered sale orders.
Wheat was one of the few markets that bucked the downtrend,
rallying after Ukraine's widely expected ban on exports of the
grain due to a weather-damaged harvest. Wheat
futures hit one-month highs in Europe and a three-week peak in
Chicago trade.
The Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a
bellwether for commodities, fell 0.7 percent to its lowest since
Aug. 3. The index has dropped for four straight sessions, with
11 of its 19 components down on Wednesday.

SURGE IN US OIL STOCKPILES
Crude oil stocks in the United States jumped by 5.9 million
barrels last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration
said, well above the increase of 1.9 million barrels forecast by
analysts in a Reuters survey.
Gasoline stocks rose more than expected, total distillate
stockpiles eased slightly less than the consensus forecast and
demand for the products over the previous four weeks came in
below the year-ago period.
"The report is mostly bearish, with the large increase in
crude oil inventories being the highlight," said John Kilduff,
partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
London's Brent crude, which determines global oil
prices more these days than U.S. crude, settled down 0.4 percent
at $107.85 a barrel after striking its lowest level since Aug.
6. The market has closed lower each session since Oct. 16.
Brent last fell for seven straight sessions in July 2010.

U.S. crude settled at $85.73 a barrel, down 1
percent.

DOLLAR PULLS METALS DOWN
Copper and gold fell under the weight of the rising dollar.
The U.S. currency rallied against the euro for a second day,
after Germany's Ifo business sentiment index fell in October for
a sixth consecutive month to the lowest level since February
2010, stoking worries that Europe's largest economy may be
headed for recession. Other euro zone economies also issued weak
data.
Purchasing managers' data showed the Chinese economy was
slowly picking up from its weakest period of growth in three
years. But that failed to lift prices of base metals, which
depend largely on consumption in China, the world's largest
metals buyer.
"I don't think one should expect too much from China in
terms of a pick-up given the government is in transition,"
Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar said. "The negative news is
priced in but, equally, until economies start to move higher,
we're not going to challenge the upside."
Benchmark three-month copper futures in London
closed down $14, or 0.2 percent, at $7,817 a tonne. They touched
$7,807.75 on Tuesday, the lowest level in six weeks.

NO "GAMES" IN WHEAT
Wheat prices soared after Ukraine's farm minister confirmed
the country would ban exports of the grain from Nov. 15, marking
the exit of another major Black Sea exporter from the global
grains market.
"We are not playing games here. We do not have any other
option," Farm Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk told Reuters after
the country lost a third of its harvest from bad crop weather.
One of the world's top 10 global wheat exporters, Ukraine's
supply of the grain had become all the more important this year
after a drought severely affected U.S. crops.
Front-month wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade
fetched above $8.80 a bushel, up 1.6 percent and at a
three-week high. European milling wheat in Paris rose
half a percent to 264.75 euros a tonne, having set a one-month
high at 267.50 euros.

Prices at 2:53 p.m. EDT (1853 GMT)

LAST NET PCT YTD
CHG CHG CHG
US crude 85.69 -0.98 -1.1% -13.3%
Brent crude 107.87 -0.38 -0.4% 0.5%
Natural gas 3.440 -0.095 -2.7% 15.1%

US gold 1704.20 -5.20 -0.3% 8.8%
Gold 1703.20 -4.89 -0.3% 8.9%
US Copper 357.45 0.50 0.1% 4.0%
LME Copper 7860.50 29.50 0.4% 3.4%
Dollar 79.978 0.002 0.0% -0.2%

US corn 754.00 -2.00 -0.3% 16.6%
US soybeans 1569.75 16.50 1.1% 31.0%
US wheat 883.25 14.50 1.7% 35.3%

US Coffee 159.55 -1.30 -0.8% -30.1%
US Cocoa 2414.00 -84.00 -3.4% 14.5%
US Sugar 19.73 0.08 0.4% -15.1%

US silver 31.815 0.022 0.1% 14.0%
US platinum 1571.20 -12.90 -0.8% 11.8%
US palladium 595.25 1.40 0.2% -9.3%