(Bloomberg) – Wheat gained for a second day after government data showed demand increased for supplies from the U.S., the world’s biggest shipper.
Wheat for March delivery gained as much as 0.7 percent to $7.82 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and was at $7.8025 by 12:25 p.m. Singapore time. Futures climbed 1 percent on Jan. 25, ending a three-session slump and trimming the weekly decline to 1.9 percent. The grain is 0.3 percent higher this month.
U.S. exporters sold 572,545 metric tons in the week ended Jan. 17, up 6.8 percent from a week earlier and the most in five weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report Jan. 25. Production of the 2013-2014 crop, most of which now lies dormant in the Great Plains and will be harvested starting in June, will total 2.213 billion bushels, down 2.5 percent from the previous season, according to broker Allendale Inc.
“The market has been waiting for global importers to come in and buy the U.S. wheat,” said Victor Thianpiriya, an analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. Potential dryness in the U.S. is another positive for prices, he said by phone from Singapore today.
U.S. rain this summer probably won’t be enough to restore soil moisture in corn, soybean and wheat fields after the worst drought since the 1930s hurt crops last year, said Drew Lerner, the president of World Weather Inc. Precipitation won’t counter the effects of the drought and parts of the northern and southern Great Plains will be among the driest this summer, Lerner said Jan. 25 in a report.
Exports of soybeans from the U.S. will jump 1.4 percent to 1.4 billion bushels from an estimated 1.345 billion a year earlier, Allendale said Jan. 26 in a statement at its annual conference in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Soybeans for March delivery climbed as much as 0.8 percent to $14.52 a bushel and were at $14.44 after rising 0.8 percent last week for a third straight weekly gain.
Corn for March delivery rose as much as 0.6 percent to $7.2475 a bushel before trading at $7.24.
