BLBG:Wheat Falls for a Third Day as Australia May Have Record Harvest, Exports
Wheat fell for a third day in Chicago, heading for a weekly decline, on speculation Australia may have a record-high crop and exports of the grain.
Wheat output may total 28.3 million metric tons in the 2011-12 season, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences said this week. That would be 8 percent more than a September estimate and up from last year’s revised all-time-high harvest of 27.9 million tons.
“Wheat has been weak for the last few days on the back of expectations for a robust crop coming out of Australia,” said Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London. “Despite the concerns about the quality of the crop, in terms of overall numbers, wheat production is looking very healthy.”
Wheat for March delivery dropped 0.4 percent to $5.9475 a bushel by 10:46 a.m. London time on the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices are down 4.9 percent this week, set for a third decline in four. Milling wheat for March delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris fell 0.4 percent to 174.50 euros ($233.27) a ton.
Australian exports may be 21.6 million tons, above the 20.4 million tons estimated in September, the bureau said. The country is the world’s third-biggest shipper of the grain.
Prices also may fall on speculation a U.S. Department of Agriculture report due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington might show a higher estimate for global wheat stockpiles. World inventories before the Northern Hemisphere’s 2012 harvest may climb 3.4 percent to 202.89 million tons, more than the government estimated last month, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
‘Treading Water’
“It has been pretty lackluster trading in agricultural markets this whole week because there’s the USDA report, so the market’s just treading water,” Victor Thianpiriya, an agricultural commodity analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said by phone from Melbourne today.
Corn for delivery in March was little changed at $6 a bushel in Chicago. The grain is up 0.8 percent this week, set for a second straight increase.
Soybeans for January delivery fell 0.4 percent to $11.28 a bushel. The oilseed is down 0.7 percent this week, poised for a fifth retreat in six.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ranjeetha Pakiam in Kuala Lumpur at rpakiam@bloomberg.net; Tony C. Dreibus in London at tdreibus@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.
