BLBG:Wheat Poised for Best Week Since July as U.S. Drought Persists
Wheat was headed for the biggest weekly gain since July as a drought persisted in the U.S., threatening this year’s harvest in the world’s largest shipper.
The contract for delivery in March was little changed at $7.82 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 1:26 p.m. Singapore time, after climbing as much as 0.7 percent. Futures are set for a 3.6 percent gain this week, the most since the five days ended July 20.
The drought, which started in the Great Plains and Midwest, will probably persist from southern South Dakota to northern Texas over the next three months because the dry earth isn’t getting soaked by winter storms, the Climate Prediction Center in College Park Maryland said yesterday.
“The focus for wheat is now on the condition of the Northern Hemisphere’s 2013-2014 winter crops, particularly in the parts of the U.S. where drought persists,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a report today.
Export sales of the current U.S. wheat crop more than doubled to 536,200 metric tons in the week ended Jan. 10, from a week earlier, on purchases by Egypt, the world’s largest buyer, and China, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
Corn for March delivery rose 0.3 percent, to $7.265 a bushel, set for a 2.5 percent advance this week.
Soybeans for delivery in March gained 0.3 percent, to $14.34 a bushel, on course for a 4.4 percent increase this week, the biggest gain for the most-active contract the five days ended since Aug. 24.
Weekly export sales of the current U.S. soybean crop jumped almost five-fold in Jan. 10, to 1.6 million tons, the most since October 2010. The transactions include 845,600 tons bought by China, the largest importer, the USDA said yesterday.
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
