(Bloomberg) – Wheat gained for a third straight day on signs of increased demand for U.S. inventories from China amid declining global stockpiles. Soybeans advanced while corn was little changed.
China has purchased 1.32 million metric tons of U.S. wheat since July 3, including 840,000 tons on July 8, Department of Agriculture data show. The country will import 5.5 million tons in the year that started on June 1, the most in nine years, according to a survey of traders and researchers in the Asian nation. World stockpiles will total 180.59 million tons, according to a separate U.S. survey, down 0.4 percent from a June USDA outlook.
“If China doesn’t have the stockpiles on hand they’ve been saying they have,” the country may need to import more, Louise Gartner, the owner of Spectrum Commodities in Beavercreek, Ohio, said by telephone. “I think they’re afraid of running out.”
Wheat futures for September delivery rose 0.2 percent to settle at $6.79 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. The price rallied 2.7 percent in the previous two sessions.
Soybean futures for November delivery gained 0.7 percent to $12.8475 a bushel on the CBOT. Corn futures for December delivery slipped less than 0.1 percent to $5.215 a bushel in Chicago.
