Wheat prices drop for ninth day on speculation of global supply boost
Corn fell for a fourth day to a seven-week low.
Wheat for July delivery lost as much as 1.3% to $6.655 (€4.85) a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, the lowest since April 11, and was at $6.70 (€5) yesterday in Singapore.
A ninth day of declines would be the longest slump for a most-active contract since September 1, 1998.
Prices dropped 9.9% from a 14-month high on May 6 after the US government predicted ample global supplies, even as local production falls.
Up to 75% of the winter crop in the Great Plains may get rain next week, and warmer, drier weather will aid planting from Minnesota to Saskatchewan, said the Commodity Weather Group. Hard-red winter wheat, grown in the Great Plains, is the most widely produced US variety.
“The fact that there’s improvement in corn planting, the weather situation, and the hard-red situation, has largely taken that risk premium out of the market,” said Michael Pitts, commodity sales director at National Australia Bank, Sydney.
“Crops are looking pretty good elsewhere.”
World wheat stockpiles will rise 0.5% to 187.4 million metric tonnes by June 1, 2015, according to the US department of agriculture. The US corn crop was 59% planted as of May 11, up from 29% a week earlier, the department said.
The US is the world’s largest wheat and corn exporter.
