Wheat dropped as Russian supplies may curb exports from the U.S., and as speculative investors liquidate bets that prices will rise amid economic concerns that threaten global demand for raw materials. Corn also fell. Russian growers have collected 27 million metric tons of wheat this year as yields surged 32 percent to 3.32 tons per hectare (2.5 acres), the Agriculture Ministry said earlier this week. Italy may be forced to turn to the European Central Bank for emergency funding unless financial markets reopen by September, Morgan Stanley said yesterday. Wheat jumped 5.3 percent on Aug. 2. “Russia is having an effect on prices and the slowdown in China is giving everybody a little pause,” said William Adams, a fund manager at Resilience AG in Zurich. “Everything in the market is 100 percent emotional right now with the debt issue and with Italy becoming a huge problem. Anytime you get double digit gains, people are looking to protect that profit.” Wheat futures for December delivery dropped 12.50 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $7.375 a bushel by 12:42 p.m. London time. Milling wheat for November delivery fell 0.3 percent to 199 euros ($283.65) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe in Paris. Russia may export 20 million to 25 million tons of grain this season, Interfax reported yesterday, citing Arkady Zlochevsky, the Grain Union president. Russia lifted an export ban on July 1 after the most-severe drought in 50 years cut grain production in 2010. The nation was the world’s second- largest wheat exporter during the 2009-2010 season, International Grains Council data show. Russian Harvest Russia may harvest 54 million tons of wheat in the year that began July 1, up from 41.5 million tons a year earlier, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service report posted on its website yesterday. Corn and soybeans dropped for a second day on speculation rain and moderating temperatures next week will boost crop prospects in the U.S., the world’s biggest shipper of both commodities. Precipitation and cooler weather will ease stress to corn and soybeans in the Midwest, including Iowa and Illinois, the biggest U.S. growers, and in the central plains, Telvent DTN said in a report yesterday. Corn gained 7.8 percent in July and soybeans rose 4.9 percent as hot, dry weather curbed crop prospects. “Weather reports are coming suggesting that next week will bring near-ideal growing conditions for corn and beans,” said Dennis Gartman, an economist, in his daily edition of The Gartman Letter. The forecast for moderate temperatures and rain bodes well for grain, he wrote. Global Economy Corn futures for December delivery lost 11 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $7.02 a bushel in Chicago. Soybean futures for November delivery fell 14.25 cents, or 1 percent, to $13.5875 a bushel. Prices also dropped on concern the global economy will sag amid lower spending by U.S. consumers and companies, reducing demand for the grain used in food, feed and biofuels. “Markets fear that the U.S. economic slowdown is not ‘transitory’ as believed by the Federal Reserve, but something more pervasive,” Natalie Robertson, a commodity analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ), wrote in a report today. “The mood today is expected to remain glum.” To contact the reporters on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in London at tdreibus@bloomberg.net, or Sungwoo Park in Seoul at spark47@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter@bloomberg.net.

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