BLBG; Wheat Futures Climb for Second Day on Weather Concerns in U.S., EU, Canada
Wheat futures advanced for a second day on concerns that dry weather in the U.S. southern plains and Europe and excessive rains in Canada will curb global supply.
July delivery wheat gained 0.6 percent to $7.7525 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:38 p.m. Singapore time, paring a weekly decline to 5.6 percent.
Wheat harvests in the U.S. will fall to 2.088 billion bushels this year, Memphis, Tennessee-based researcher Informa Economics Inc. said yesterday, cutting its estimate for this year’s crop from 2.107 billion bushels last month. Output was 2.208 billion bushels last year, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. The researcher also reduced its harvest forecasts for the European Union by 5.4 percent, and for Canada by 1.8 percent.
“These are turbulent times,” Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services Ltd. in Sydney, said in an e-mail today. The concern about weather-related losses to crops “keeps pressure on for prices to move higher.”
Wheat production in the EU may drop to 135 million metric tons because of drought, Informa said. Canada’s harvest may total 27.1 million tons, 500,000 tons below the company’s May estimate, as wet weather has cut plantings in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Informa said.
The U.S., Canada and the EU are the world’s three biggest shippers of wheat, according to the USDA.
Corn for July delivery was little changed at $7.675 a bushel, set for a 1.2 percent gain this week.
China, the world’s second-largest corn grower, will produce 180 million tons this year, up 11 million tons from a May forecast, Informa said.
Soybean output in China, the world’s biggest buyer, will be 14.4 million tons, down 1 million from last month’s estimate and 800,000 below 2010, Informa said.
July-delivery soybeans gained 0.4 percent to $14.1275 a bushel in Chicago, taking the weekly gain to 2.4 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
