BLBG: Corn Futures Head for Biggest Weekly Gain in Seven Months on Import Demand
Corn futures advanced, heading for the biggest weekly gain in more than seven months, on optimism the 9.8 percent slump in the previous two weeks may have attracted importers. Wheat and soybeans also rose.
July-delivery corn gained 0.6 percent to $7.5275 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:19 p.m. in Singapore, set for a 10.4 percent gain this week, the biggest such advance since the five days to Oct. 8.
Export sales of corn from the U.S., the world’s largest shipper, more than doubled to 1.15 million metric tons in the week to May 12, from 457,458 tons a week earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
“It was the strongest weekly sales result since late March and signals that significant pent up demand was uncovered as corn prices slumped in early May,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a report e-mailed today.
Wheat for July delivery gained 0.3 percent to $8.14 a bushel, taking the weekly advance to 12 percent, the biggest since the five days to Dec. 3.
Futures jumped this week on concerns worsening crop conditions in Europe, which accounts for about a fifth of global output, and the U.S. may slash global supply.
Forecasters predicted May 18 that the crop in France, the EU’s largest wheat grower, will drop 12 percent on dry weather as output in second-ranking Germany slides 7.2 percent.
Rain Scarce
As of May 15, U.S. winter-wheat was in the worst condition since 1996, with 44 percent of fields rated poor or very poor by the USDA. The National Weather Service estimates rainfall in the past two months was less than half of normal in much of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
Soybeans for July delivery increased 0.3 percent to $13.84 a bushel, taking the weekly gain to 4.1 percent.
U.S. exporters sold 110,000 tons of soybeans to China for delivery in the 2011-2012 season that starts Sept. 1, the USDA said yesterday in a statement.
Before that transaction with China, export sales of soybeans advanced to 166,232 tons in the week to May 12, from 62,245 tons a week earlier, the USDA said in a separate report.
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
