BLBG:Wheat Caps Biggest Weekly Drop Since March on Production Gain
Wheat slid, capping the biggest weekly drop since March, on signs that global production will rise to a record as exports lag behind last year’s pace in the U.S., the world’s top shipper.
World output will surge to 701.1 million metric tons in the year that starts June 1, with gains of 48 percent in Russia and 40 percent in Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said May 10. U.S. exporters through May 9 shipped 24.6 million tons since the start of the marketing year on June 1, down 2 percent from a year earlier, government data show. Prices have tumbled 28 percent since reaching a four-year high in July.
“When you look around the world, there aren’t many problems with production,” Larry Glenn, an analyst at Frontier Ag in Quinter, Kansas, said in a telephone interview. “We don’t have the exports. They’ve been slow because we’ve lost some business to other countries.”
Wheat futures for July delivery fell 0.7 percent to close at $6.8325 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. The grain fell 3 percent this week, the biggest decline since March 29. The commodity has dropped 12 percent this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in Chicago at tdreibus@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net.
