BLBG:Wheat Declines as Snow May Help Ease Drought Conditions in Parts of U.S.
Wheat fell from the highest level in almost a month as winter snow may help ease drought in parts of the U.S. and after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke failed to signal further measures to stimulate the economy.
May-delivery wheat lost as much as 1.1 percent to $6.605 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, before trading at $6.625 at 3:10 p.m. Singapore time. It surged as much as 0.9 percent yesterday to the highest level in four weeks.
Storms in the past two days brought as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snow to parts of North Dakota, the biggest U.S. grower of spring wheat, while accumulations reached 12 inches in Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service. Conditions in the two states ranged from “severe” drought to “abnormally dry” as of Feb. 21, after months of below-normal precipitation, according to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
“The better seasonal conditions should translate into an increase in U.S. spring wheat planting,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a report e-mailed today. “Global wheat supplies are huge and the moisture profile in the northern U.S. grain belt has improved following recent winter storms.”
Equities, bonds and metals dropped yesterday after Bernanke affirmed that interest rates may stay low at least through late 2014, without offering any indication that further monetary easing is under consideration.
Corn for May delivery fell as much as 1.1 percent to $6.505 a bushel after the most-active contract gained 3 percent in February. Soybeans for May delivery slid as much as 1 percent to $13.0625 a bushel, the first loss for the most-active contract in nine days. Futures jumped 10 percent in February, the best monthly performance since Dec. 2010.
Exporters in the U.S., the world’s largest soybean grower, sold 285,000 metric tons of the oilseed to China and 120,000 tons of corn to Mexico, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday. As of Feb. 16, exporters had agreed to ship 19.2 million tons of soybeans to China, the USDA said Feb. 24.
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
