71.   They have easy sales comparisons, lean inventories and are operating fewer new stores.

72.   To be sure, prices for bags of high-quality coffee are higher than futures prices, reflecting lean global inventories of the most desirable beans.

73.   Traders speculated that flooding in the southern U.S. would delay corn planting during a time of lean inventories.

74.   Unroasted bean prices soared amid lean inventories and smaller-than-expected crops from Latin America and Indonesia.

75.   Wheat futures, after rising in early trade, settled mixed as a pickup in world demand threatened to draw grain from lean U.S. inventories.

76.   Wheat rose as heavy rain soaked already-soggy fields in Texas, slowing the harvest at a time of lean inventories.

77.   Wheat rose on speculation dry weather would damage the winter wheat crop during a time of lean inventories.

78.   While oil prices have surged in recent weeks amid robust demand and lean inventories, traders said the black cloud that still hangs over the market is Iraq.

79.   With Brazil entering its winter, a frost could send prices soaring while a healthy crop could boost lean global inventories.

80.   With inventories as lean as they are, few traders are willing to risk selling contracts in a bet prices will fall.