(Bloomberg) – Corn headed for the longest stretch of declines since 1980 in Chicago and wheat traded at a seven-month low on speculation rains in Brazil and the U.S. will help crop development.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms will aid crops in southern Brazil this week, and parts of the central and southern plains in the U.S. may have some rain next week, forecaster DTN said in a report yesterday. Brazil is set to overtake Argentina as the second-ranking exporter of corn, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. ships the most wheat.
“The weather situation is certainly getting better because rainfall will improve next season’s wheat yield,” Andrey Kryuchenkov, a London-based commodity strategist at VTB Capital, said by phone today. Wheat also slid on investors’ expectations of larger ending stockpiles next season, he said.
Corn for delivery in March dropped 1 percent to $6.89 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 11:27 a.m. London time. The grain headed for a ninth straight retreat, which would match a run of losses through Dec. 11, 1980, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
U.S. corn production is projected to surge 35 percent to 14.4 billion bushels in the 2013-14 season, the USDA said Feb. 11 in a 10-year forecast of trends. Prices are down 19 percent from the record high of $8.49 a bushel reached in August amid concern about the worst U.S. drought in half a century.
Wheat, Soybeans
Wheat for delivery in March fell 1.1 percent to $7.24 a bushel. Prices reached $7.235, the lowest level for a most- active contract since June 25. Milling wheat for delivery in May traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris lost 1.9 percent to 232 euros ($312) a metric ton.
Rainfall is needed to prevent significant stress during spring, DTN said. The U.S. winter-wheat crop was in the worstshape since at least 1985 when it went dormant in November.
Soybeans for delivery in May dropped 1.1 percent to $13.945 a bushel in Chicago, set for a sixth straight retreat. Prices are down 22 percent from the all-time high of $17.89 touched in September. The oilseed cost 2.02 times more than corn, compared with an average of 2.4 times in the past decade. The crops compete for acreage.
