BLBG:Corn, Wheat Head for Second Monthly Advance as Dry Weather May Curb Crops
Corn, wheat and soybeans headed for a second monthly gain in Chicago on speculation dry weather will damage crops in the U.S., the world’s largest exporter of the commodities, threatening to curb global supply.
December-delivery corn fell 0.3 percent to $7.7275 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 10:42 a.m. Paris time, climbing 16 percent this month. Soybeans for November delivery fell 0.2 percent, while headed for a 7 percent gain this month.
Dryness will continue to stress corn and soybean crops in the Midwest, the largest U.S. growing region, with near to below-normal rainfall in the next four days, Telvent DTN Inc. said in a forecast yesterday.
“Crop conditions in the corn belt have continued to deteriorate,” Bourges, France-based farm adviser Offre et Demande Agricole said in an e-mailed report today. “Those are supporting elements in the context of a need to rebuild global stocks of quality wheat and balance the super-stretched U.S. corn situation.”
December-delivery wheat slipped 0.6 percent to $7.8575 a bushel in Chicago, trimming the monthly advance to 10 percent. Milling wheat for November delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris climbed 0.1 percent to 211 euros ($304.68) a metric ton, adding 6.6 percent this month.
Corn Conditions
An estimated 54 percent of U.S. corn was in good or excellent condition last week, compared with 57 percent a week earlier as dry Midwest weather hurt the plants, and down from 70 percent a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Aug. 29.
About 57 percent of the soybeans in the 18 largest growing states were in good or excellent condition as of Aug. 28, down from 59 percent a week earlier and 64 percent a year earlier, according to the USDA report.
Chicago corn futures have advanced 23 percent this year, the fourth-best performance among the Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge for 24 commodities. Soybeans have climbed 3.6 percent and wheat futures are down 1.2 percent on CBOT. Paris wheat futures have slumped 17 percent since the start of the year.
Rough rice for November delivery advanced 0.9 percent to $17.84 for 100 pounds, the highest price for a most-active contract on the Chicago Board of Trade since Oct. 2008. Futures are up 11 percent this month, and 25 percent this year.
Thailand, the world’s biggest rice exporter, will begin buying rice from farmers at above-market prices in mid-October, instead of November, the government said today. That plan, combined with a forecast 20 percent slump in harvest in the U.S., and rising import demand, may push the regional benchmark export price up 22 percent to $750 a ton, according to a Bloomberg survey of exporters, traders and millers last week.
To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Richard Dobson at rdobson4@bloomberg.net Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.
