Credit Suisse cuts gold, silver price forecasts

An employee displays a gold jewellery to a client at a shop owned by the Krastsvetmet nonferrous metal plant in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk August 12, 2011.

REUTERS - Credit Suisse on Tuesday lowered its 2012 price forecasts for precious metals and grains, citing remarkably resilient global output and a slower pace of global growth.

The brokerage lowered its price forecast for gold to $1,755 per ounce from $1,850 while maintaining its bullish view, saying the precious metal has recovered from its end-2011 corrections and is likely to return to its long-standing upward price trend.

Credit Suisse lowered its silver price forecast to $32.80 per ounce from $33.70 for 2012, adding that the metal should perform well, benefiting from both a rising gold price and an improvement in risk appetite.

It cut platinum price forecasts for 2012 by $205 to $1,570 per ounce and palladium by $16 to $755 per ounce.

Among base metals, the brokerage revised down its price forecasts for aluminium by $85 to $2,425 per tonne, zinc by $115 to $2,075 per tonne, and lead by $117 to $2,213 per tonne, while maintaining its copper, nickel and tin forecasts.

REDUCED PRICE FORECASTS FOR CORN, SOY, WHEAT

Credit Suisse cut its price forecasts for corn, soybeans and wheat, citing increased production, tight fundamentals, particularly for corn, and weaker demand.

The brokerage expects Chicago Board of Trade CBOT.L corn to average $5.90 per bushel versus $6.80 earlier.

For CBOT soybeans, the brokerage adjusted its 2012 price forecast to $12.31 per bushel from its previous forecast of

$13.55.

"We note, however, that given still tight inventory cover for corn, and to a lesser extent soy beans, the grains complex remains highly sensitive to further supply disruptions, with the current La Niña weather pattern suggesting that the risk is greater than average," Credit Suisse said in a research note.

The brokerage also lowered its CBOT wheat price forecast to $6.25 per bushel from $6.90 for 2012, citing higher U.S. and global stock projections.

(Reporting by Naveed Anjum in Bangalore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)