Wheat Rebounds From Three-Month Low on U.S., Australia Dryness
Category: Grains
(Businessweek) – Wheat rose in Chicago, rebounding from a three-month low as dry weather in parts of the U.S. and Australia puts crops at risk in the world’s two biggest exporters of the grain.
Rains missed many parts of the U.S. northern Plains over the weekend, while Western Australia will remain mostly dry in the next six days, Telvent DTN Inc. said yesterday. About 36 percent of U.S. winter wheat had emerged by Oct. 14, below the five-year average of 44 percent, the government said.
“In the northern Plains, significant moisture deficits persist,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a report today. “This may create some concern” for crops going into the winter season, he said.
Wheat for December delivery added 0.9 percent to $8.56 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 2:42 p.m. Paris time. Prices yesterday touched $8.4025, the lowest level since July 12, as U.S. export sales fell.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its outlook for world wheat production and stocks on Oct. 11 on expectations the harvest will slide in Australia, the second-largest shipper. Stockpiles will probably drop 13 percent to 173 million metric tons at the end of this marketing year from a year earlier, the USDA said.
Milling wheat for November delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in the French capital gained 0.4 percent to 260 euros ($339) a ton.
Soybeans for delivery in November rose 0.6 percent to $15.01 a bushel in Chicago. The oilseed reached the lowest level since July 3 yesterday on signs of slowing demand for U.S. supplies and amid speculation that rains in Brazil will boost crops there.
Corn for delivery in December climbed 0.8 percent to $7.43 a bushel, advancing for a first day in three. The grain touched $7.325 yesterday, the lowest price since Oct. 10, as the U.S. harvest progressed.
To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
