Gold futures slumped 8.4 percent last quarter, the first such loss this year. The metal touched $1,204.30 an ounce on Sept. 30, the lowest since January. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says the worst isn’t over for bullion, forecasting prices at $1,050 by year-end.

Platinum prices in New York fell to a five-year low yesterday on concern that demand will falter for the metal used in pollution-control devices in cars. Silver tumbled 19 percent last quarter.

Corn and soybeans will extend this year’s price slump as yields in the U.S., the world’s biggest grower, beat government estimates and boost domestic stockpiles, Damien Courvalin, a New York-based analyst at Goldman, said in a report Sept. 30. The grain extended a drop to a five-year low yesterday, and the oilseed dropped to the cheapest since 2010 in Chicago.

Societe Generale SA on Sept. 12 lowered its price forecasts for more than half of the 43 raw materials it tracks, and on Sept. 24, Citigroup pared its outlook on commodities including crude oil, gold, corn and wheat.

“I hope we’re nearing the end of this, but I think we’re in the middle of a substantial financial liquidation,” Michael Shaoul, the chief executive officer of Marketfield Asset Management LLC, which oversees $17 billion, said in a telephone interview from New York. “If it’s financial liquidation, it should be peaking” and create “a floor under commodity prices,” he said. “If instead, it really is global demand for commodities deteriorating, or being overwhelmed by supply, then it could continue.”

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