(Businessweek) – Wheat futures advanced for a second day as China bought as many as 16 cargoes of U.S. wheat after prices plunged as much as 30 percent from a four-year high in July. Corn and soybeans rose.
Wheat for May delivery added as much as 1.4 percent to $7.0875 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and was at $7.065 at 11:03 a.m. in Singapore on volume almost double the 100-day average for that time. Prices fell 30 percent through April 1 from an intraday high of $9.4725 on July 23.
China purchased the U.S. soft red winter wheat on April 4, state-owned researcher Grain.gov.cn said in an e-mailed report today, without saying where it got the information. The shipments are for delivery from June to December from the Gulf of Mexico and the purchase is the largest by China this year, it said in a statement.
“It’s more opportunistic to a large extent,” Michael Pitts, a commodity sales director at National Australia Bank Ltd., said from Sydney today, when asked why China had bought the grain. “Soft wheat has relatively more attractive prices compared with domestic availability,” he said.
Corn for May delivery increased 0.7 percent to $6.3325 a bushel in Chicago, while soybeans gained 1.1 percent to $13.76 a bushel.
