(Businessweek) – Corn climbed for a fourth day and soybeans and wheat gained as dry weather threatened to hurt crops in the U.S., the world’s biggest shipper.
Iowa and Illinois, the largest U.S. corn and soybean growing states, may be mostly dry this week after showers in some areas today, according to the National Weather Service. Conditions in the Midwest range from “abnormally dry” to “severe” drought after months of below-normal rain, according to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln’s U.S. Drought Monitor.
“The weather forecast for the U.S. gets worse and worse,” Nick Higgins, an analyst at Rabobank International, said in an interview in London. “It gets dry again this week, and that certainly creates some issues.”
Corn for July delivery rose 0.5 percent to $6.0075 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 10:59 a.m. London time. The most-active contract increased 8.4 percent last week. Soybeans for November delivery gained 0.5 percent to $13.3975 a bushel, after advancing 5.9 percent last week.
Prices gained before a report tomorrow in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture may cut its outlook for domestic corn supplies. Stockpiles before the 2013 harvest may be 1.743 billion bushels, or 7.3 percent less than forecast a month ago, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts.
“If the hot and dry weather continues, it will be bullish” for corn, Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager for research at IDO Securities Co. in Tokyo, said in an e-mail.
South America Drought
China, the biggest soybean buyer, imported the most in five months in May as processors purchased more on concern that drought in South America would cut global supplies. Shipments rose 8.2 percent to 5.28 million metric tons from 4.88 million tons in April and compared with 4.56 million tons a year earlier, customs said in a statement yesterday. Purchases will rise to 6 million tons in June and reach a record 57 million tons in the year ending Sept. 30, according to researcher Grain.gov.cn.
Wheat for July delivery rose 0.8 percent to $6.35 a bushel in Chicago, extending last week’s 2.9 percent advance. In Paris, November-delivery milling wheat gained 0.2 percent to 210 euros ($264.15) a ton on NYSE Liffe.
Global wheat stockpiles may drop to 185.06 million tons on June 1, 2013, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bloomberg survey before the USDA report tomorrow. Dry weather has threatened output from the U.S. to Russia.
To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
