BLBG:Wheat Futures Decline a Second Day as Canada Forecasts Higher Production
Wheat futures declined for a second day amid speculation higher output in Canada may intensify competition among exporters, slowing demand for U.S. supplies.
December delivery wheat dropped as much a 1.4 percent to $7.665 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, before trading at $7.68 at 10:28 a.m. Singapore time. Wheat surged 6.1 percent in the three days to Aug. 23 on concern that hot weather in the U.S. will curb the harvest in the world’s largest shipper.
Canada’s wheat harvest will probably rise 3.9 percent to 24.1 million metric tons this year from 23.2 million tons last year, when crops in the prairie provinces were hurt by excessive rains and floods, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The nation was the world’s fourth-largest wheat shipper in the 2010-2011 season, according to data from the International Grains Council.
The Canada forecast, which beats the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s estimate of 21.5 million tons, prompted investors to cash in gains from the recent rally, Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a report e-mailed today.
Corn for December delivery slipped 0.9 percent to $7.3625 a bushel, while soybeans for November delivery lost 0.4 percent to $13.875 a bushel.
U.S. export sales of corn and wheat probably fell in the week ended Aug. 18 from a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
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
