MW: Wheat Rises to Two-Month High as U.S. Drought May Curb Sowing; Corn Gains
Wheat rose to a two-month high in Chicago on speculation a drought in the U.S. will cut the amount of winter plants seeded this year.
Little or no rain has fallen in parts of the U.S. southern Plains this year, National Weather Service data show. Dry, hot weather will persist in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the largest U.S. producers of winter wheat, in the next week, Telvent DTN said. Spring-wheat growers may have been unable to plant 2.92 million acres this year because of wet weather, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.
“The disappointing U.S. spring-wheat crop and feared delays to winter-wheat planting in the Great Plains because of drought are the top issues on the U.S. wheat market at present,” Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in a report today.
Wheat for December delivery gained 8.75 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $7.70 a bushel by 10:27 a.m. London time on the Chicago Board of Trade. The grain touched $7.725, the highest price since June 14. Milling wheat for November delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris rose 2.25 euros, or 1.1 percent, to 204 euros ($294) a metric ton.
Corn and soybeans advanced for a second day on concern a week-long crop survey will show signs of declining yields in the U.S., curbing supply from the top global exporter of both crops.
Professional Farmers of America will begin deploying analysts, grain traders, buyers and farmers today as scouts to survey 2,000 fields in seven states. That tour will uncover evidence of diminished output after the hottest July since 1955 stunted Midwest crop growth, according to Roy Huckabay, an executive vice president at commodity broker Linn Group.
Corn for December delivery rose 6.5 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $7.3175 a bushel in Chicago. November-delivery soybeans gained 10.25 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $13.7875 a bushel.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in London at tdreibus@bloomberg.net; Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
