BLBG:Wheat Advances a Third Day as Cold Weather Threatens U.S. Supply
Wheat advanced for a third day, the longest winning streak since November, as cold weather in the U.S. added to concerns over global supply already cut by higher feed use. Soybeans and corn were little changed.
Wheat for March delivery gained as much as 0.6 percent to $7.715 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, before trading at $7.6975 a bushel at 11:18 a.m. in Singapore. Futures climbed 19 percent last year.
Temperatures in parts of the wheat belt in U.S., the largest shipper, will turn colder over the next week, especially in northern and eastern areas, DTN said in a forecast yesterday. The U.S. winter-wheat crop, dormant since November, was already in the worst shape since record keeping began in 1985.
“The uncertainty in the prospects of the U.S. wheat crop may induce more volatility in the market, skewed slightly” to the bullish side, Joyce Liu, a Singapore-based analyst at Phillip Futures Pte., said in a report today. “Weather concerns include the lack of snow-cover, leaving the wheat crop exposed.”
Global inventories will decline 9.8 percent to a four-year low of 176.6 million metric tons before the 2013 Northern Hemisphere harvest, smaller than the 176.95 million tons forecast in December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Jan. 11.
Supplies are shrinking faster than projected in December, as livestock and poultry growers in the U.S., the largest shipper, are estimated to use about 960,000 tons more than forecast last month, the USDA said.
Corn for March delivery traded little changed at $7.235 a bushel in Chicago while soybeans for delivery in the same month slipped 0.1 percent to $14.165 a bushel.
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
