COMMODITIES-Oil, copper slide on economic worries; wheat up

* Oil down 5th day; Brent crude loses 5.5 pct since Oct 15
* Copper plumbs one-month low as Japan's exports dive
* Natgas leads day's losses, profit-taking after 2012 highs
* US wheat up, Ukraine ban on wheat exports likely

By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for a fifth
straight session on Monday on warnings about slowing economies
and expected production and pipeline restarts, while copper hit
a one-month low after a bigger-than-expected fall in Japan's
exports reflected the global economic slowdown.
Natural gas also slid, pressured by profit-taking, after
speculators had pushed the market to 2012 highs last week
despite an absence of cold weather in the U.S. Northeast --
where gas is one of the main fuels for heating.
Crop prices rebounded broadly. Wheat futures in Chicago
rallied on expectations the U.S. market will benefit from
Ukraine's likely ban on wheat exports. Short-covering lifted
arabica coffee in New York.
The Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a gauge
widely followed by commodity investors, fell nearly 1 percent,
with 11 of its 19 components settling in negative territory.
Natural gas led losses with a near 5 percent drop. Crude oil,
heating oil and gasoline fell about 2 percent each.

WORRY OF SLOWING ECONOMY WEIGHS ON OIL
Oil's benchmark Brent crude settled at $109.44 a
barrel in London, down 0.6 percent on the day. Since its last
positive close on April 15, Brent has fallen 5.5 percent.
Its sharpest drop over the five-day period was on Friday,
when it fell 2 percent on news that TransCanada Corp
was restarting the 590,000-barrel-per-day Keystone crude oil
pipeline serving Canada and the United States.
New York-traded U.S. crude slumped more than Brent on
Monday, closing 2 percent down at $88.65 a barrel. U.S. crude
has the largest weighting of the CRB's 19 commodities.
Oil traders said U.S. crude and other energy markets fell
after a warning from giant industrial equipment maker
Caterpillar Inc about the-faster-than-expected slowing
in the global economy.
"I think the outlook from Cat is weighing on the overall
demand outlook for oil," said John Kilduff, partner at Again
Capital LLC in New York.

JAPAN RECESSION FEAR HITS COPPER
In copper, the benchmark three-month futures contract in
London closed 0.8 percent weaker at $7,953 per tonne
after touching an intraday low of $7,930, the weakest since
Sept. 7.
The metal, used extensively in construction and power, has
broken below its range of $8,000 and $8,400 held since early
September, which may prompt further liquidation of long
positions, traders said.
Copper prices slid after data showed Japan's exports tumbled
at their sharpest pace since the aftermath of last year's
earthquake in the year to September. The data reinforces
concerns that the No. 3 economy may slide back into recession.

"If you look at the way in which Japanese exports are a
function of the demand from the rest of Asia - that's become
clearly apparent over the last couple of years - this is a
reflection of weakness in the Asian economy as a whole," said
Natixis commodities strategist Nic Brown.

Prices at 4:58 p.m. EDT (2058 GMT)
LAST/ NET PCT YTD
CLOSE CHG CHG CHG
US crude 88.30 -1.32 -1.5% -10.7%
Brent crude 109.78 -0.36 -0.3% 2.2%
Natural gas 3.452 -0.165 -4.6% 15.5%

US gold 1726.30 2.30 0.1% 10.2%
Gold 1728.00 7.91 0.5% 10.5%
US Copper 362.20 -1.55 -0.4% 5.4%
LME Copper 7953.00 -62.00 -0.8% 4.6%
Dollar 79.588 -0.033 0.0% -0.7%

US corn 761.25 -0.25 0.0% 17.7%
US soybeans 1546.50 12.25 0.8% 29.0%
US wheat 878.25 5.75 0.7% 34.5%

US Coffee 164.50 2.85 1.8% -27.9%
US Cocoa 2516.00 27.00 1.1% 19.3%
US Sugar 20.06 -0.17 -0.8% -13.6%

US silver 32.252 0.155 0.5% 15.5%
US platinum 1612.20 -3.30 -0.2% 14.8%
US palladium 622.65 -0.35 -0.1% -5.1%