Wheat futures advanced for the first time this week, and corn snapped five days of losses on speculation the tumble in prices made U.S. supplies more attractive to investors and importers. Soybeans gained. December-delivery wheat added 0.8 percent to $6.7675 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 11:10 a.m. Singapore time, after losing 4.7 percent in the past two sessions. Corn for December delivery gained 1.1 percent to $5.5175 a bushel, after declining 5.7 percent in the past five sessions. The grain market is seeing a “bounce, following the steep declines,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said by phone from Sydney today. The Dollar Index, which tracks the value of the currency against six major trading partners, declined 0.2 percent after rising 1.7 percent yesterday as investors sought a haven on concern tighter Chinese monetary policy may dampen economic growth in the country and globally. The dollar gain yesterday “knocked the wind out” of commodities, Mathews said. China’s central bank yesterday unexpectedly raised borrowing costs for the first time since 2007, lifting the one- year lending rate to 5.56 percent from 5.31 percent. The deposit rate was increased to 2.5 percent from 2.25 percent. Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat importer, bought 290,000 metric tons of the grain, including two 55,000-ton cargoes from the U.S., for shipment from Dec. 21 to Dec. 31, Nomani Nomani, vice-chairman of the state-run General Authority for Supply Commodities, said yesterday. Russian Output Russia’s harvests of all grains fell 37 percent to 61.9 million tons, in so-called bunker weight, as of Oct. 17, because of drought, Moscow-based news service Interfax reported, citing Agriculture Ministry data. That’s bigger than the 34 percent decline reported by the Federal State Statistics Service as of Oct. 1. Russia was the third-largest wheat grower last year. Bunker weight is at least 6 percent more than what the grain weighs after drying and cleaning. Russian farmers planted 12.9 million hectares (31.9 million acres) with winter grains as of Oct. 17, down by 3.9 million hectares from a year ago, Interfax said, citing the ministry. Soybeans for January delivery increased for the first time four sessions, gaining 0.8 percent to $12.01 a bushel in Chicago. Soybeans for May delivery in Dalian were little changed at 4,252 yuan ($639) a ton, while corn was up 0.4 percent at 2,157 yuan. 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

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