(Bloomberg) – Wheat fell for a ninth session, the longest slide since 1998, amid improving weather for U.S. crops as well as planting progress in the U.S. and Canada.
Rain is forecast to aid winter wheat in the Central Plains this week, while a break in rains farther north will allow for spring-wheat planting in the Dakotas as well as the Canadian prairies, Commodity Weather Group wrote in a May 30 report.
Wheat for July delivery fell 1 percent to $6.21 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 5:51 a.m. local time. It reached $6.1625, the lowest since March 3. The contract dropped in 17 of the past 18 trading sessions. Milling wheat for November delivery traded on Euronext in Paris dropped 0.8 percent to 190 euros ($258.57) a metric ton.
“Improving weather conditions across the States have continued to weigh on prices,” U.K. grain trader Gleadell Agriculture Ltd. wrote. “The recent improvement now looks set to aid crop development.”
Spring-wheat planting was 74 percent complete as of May 25, up from 49 percent a week earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. About 30 percent of the winter crop was in good or excellent condition, up from 29 percent a week earlier, the USDA said on May 27.
Wheat fell 13 percent in Chicago in May, the biggest monthly drop since September 2011.
“Market concerns continued to fade around the timeliness of planting of spring wheat crops in the U.S. and Canada,” Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. analysts, including Paul Deane, wrote in a report today.
Ukraine Agriculture Minister Ihor Shvayka said today that the country’s grain exports mostly have been unaffected by Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Soybeans Slip
Corn for July delivery declined 0.5 percent to $4.6325 a bushel after touching $4.6125, the lowest since Feb. 28. In May, the grain dropped 10 percent, the most in a year.
Soybeans for July delivery fell 0.4 percent to $14.88 a bushel. Last month, the oilseed dropped 1.3 percent, ending a three-month rally, the longest since August 2012.
U.S. farmers planted 88 percent of the corn crop as of May 25, matching the five-year average pace, and soybean seeding was 59 percent finished, up from 33 percent a week earlier, the USDA said on May 27.
The U.S. is the biggest corn and soybean producer, and domestic output of both crops is set to climb to records, the USDA said May 9.
“Corn and soybean planting showed a further increase, while the prospects for improving crop conditions are also leading to easing, with the announcement of new rains expected for the Corn Belt,” Paris-based farm advisor Agritel wrote.
