Trader's Highlight

DJI-NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Investors abandoned red-hot commodity shares on Tuesday, while fears of lower supermarket profits hit food retailers, sending the S&P and Nasdaq lower.

Volume was strong for a second day as investors reshuffled their portfolios at the beginning of the year, and analysts said the attractiveness of equities was intact.

Recent stock gainers topped Tuesday's list of losers, falling as copper, oil and other commodities slipped from multiyear highs.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> added 20.43 points, or 0.18 percent, to 11,691.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dipped 1.67 points, or 0.13 percent, to 1,270.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was off 10.27 points, or 0.38 percent, to 2,681.25.

NYMEX-NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures slid more than 2 percent on Tuesday, posting their biggest one-day percentage loss since mid-November, as investors took some profits after prices rose to a 27-month high on Monday.

Profit-taking also hit a broad range of commodities after the dollar bounced on economic data that showed an increase in U.S. factory orders in November.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for February delivery settled down $2.17, or 2.37 percent, at $89.38 a barrel, after trading from $88.36 to $92.07.

CBOT-CHICAGO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade grain and soy complex futures closed lower on Tuesday amid a wave of profit-taking and long liquidation, traders said.

Prices had climbed to levels that some analysts viewed as lofty and unsustainable. Front-month corn futures, for example, had climbed to a 29-month high at year-end.

CBOT-SOYBEANS - January down 9-1/4 cents at $13.61 per bushel. Funds sold an estimated net 6,000 contracts.

CBOT-SOYOIL - January down 0.76 cent at $56.33 cents per lb. Funds sold an estimated net 3,000 contracts.

FCPO-KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil hit a fresh 33-month high on Tuesday as part of a weather-driven rally in global vegetable oil markets.

Heavier-than-usual rains stalled harvesting in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia, and dry weather slowed soy plantings in South America, raising concern over tight supplies.

Prospects of shrinking supplies come as top Asian buyers such as China need to build inventories for Lunar New Year holidays in early February, which run for about 10 days.

The benchmark March 2011 crude palm oil contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives rose 0.9 percent to 3,888 ringgit ($1,268.722) per tonne, after earlier going as high as 3,905 ringgit -- a level unseen since March 10, 2008.

REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets rose in strong volume on Tuesday as higher oil prices boosted demand for energy and other commodity-related stocks, with optimism about the U.S. recovery and Asian growth raising risk appetite.

Malaysian shares <.KLSE> hit a record intra-day high on their second trading session of the year while stocks in Singapore <.FTSTI>, Thailand <.SETI> and the Philippines <.PSI> approached eight-week highs.

The region attracted more foreign inflows as investors kept looking for higher-yieldings assets. Manila gained $129 million in inflows on Tuesday, a three-week high, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Singapore's Straits Times Index was up 0.6 percent on the day, Thailand's SET index rose 1.2 percent by 0910 GMT and the main Philippine share index inched up 0.08 percent.

Malaysian crude palm oil hit a 33-month high on Monday and that pushed up palm plantation stocks, led by a 5.7 percent surge in Malaysia's Sime Darby and a 3.8 percent gain in IOI Corp .

Singaporean palm oil firm Noble Group gained 2.3 percent and Olam International rose 1.9 percent.