(Bloomberg) – Wheat fell in Chicago on signs world supplies will be ample as Australia’s crop expands and India considers boosting exports of the grain. Corn also slid.
World wheat output may climb 4.9 percent in the 2013-14 season to 688 million metric tons, Australia’s government forecaster said yesterday. It projected a 13 percent increase in the country’s harvest. India, the world’s second-largest wheat grower, may approve more exports from state reserves tomorrow amid forecasts for a near-record harvest, Press Trust of Indiareported today, citing Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.
“New-crop fundamentals continue to weigh on wheat,” Jaime Nolan-Miralles, an INTL FCStone Inc. commodity risk manager in Dublin, said in a report today. Australia “released its new crop view seeing a strong rebound in global wheat output.”
Wheat for delivery in May dropped 0.6 percent to $7.02 a bushel by 6:26 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices touched an eight-month low of $6.975 on March 4. In Paris, milling wheat for the same delivery month declined 0.5 percent to 235 euros ($306.39) a ton on NYSE Liffe, after touching 233.75 euros, the lowest since Feb. 26.
Trading volumes for wheat futures in Chicago were 47 percent lower than the average in the past 100 days for this time of day, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg.
China is the biggest global wheat producer, while the U.S. ranks first among exporters.
In the U.S., crop conditions in Kansas and Oklahoma improved in the week ended March 3, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Much of the Great Plains, the nation’s biggest growing area for hard, red winter wheat, remains under moderate to exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Drought Conditions
Snow in the U.S. helped ease drought conditions, Joe Glauber, chief economist at the USDA, said today in Canberra, Australia’s capital. Some central areas of the U.S. from Kansas to Illinois had double the normal amount of moisture in the past two weeks, National Weather Service data show. The USDA is scheduled to update some U.S. and world crop forecasts March 8.
Corn for delivery in May fell 0.2 percent to $7.0775 a bushel in Chicago. Soybeans for the same delivery month rose less than 0.1 percent to $14.6725 a bushel after declining as much as 0.4 percent.
