Corn headed for the longest stretch
of declines since 1980 in Chicago and wheat traded at a seven-
month low on speculation rains in Brazil and the U.S. will help
crop development.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms will aid crops in
southern Brazil this week, and parts of the central and southern
plains in the U.S. may have some rain next week, forecaster DTN
said in a report yesterday. Brazil is set to overtake Argentina
as the second-ranking exporter of corn, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. The U.S. ships the most wheat.
“The weather situation is certainly getting better because
rainfall will improve next season’s wheat yield,” Andrey Kryuchenkov, a London-based commodity strategist at VTB Capital,
said by phone today. Wheat also slid on investors’ expectations
of larger ending stockpiles next season, he said.
Corn for delivery in March dropped 1 percent to $6.89 a
bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 11:27 a.m. London time.
The grain headed for a ninth straight retreat, which would match
a run of losses through Dec. 11, 1980, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg.
U.S. corn production is projected to surge 35 percent to
14.4 billion bushels in the 2013-14 season, the USDA said Feb.
11 in a 10-year forecast of trends. Prices are down 19 percent
from the record high of $8.49 a bushel reached in August amid
concern about the worst U.S. drought in half a century.
Wheat, Soybeans
Wheat for delivery in March fell 1.1 percent to $7.24 a
bushel. Prices reached $7.235, the lowest level for a most-
active contract since June 25. Milling wheat for delivery in May
traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris lost 1.9 percent to 232 euros
($312) a metric ton.
Rainfall is needed to prevent significant stress during
spring, DTN said. The U.S. winter-wheat crop was in the worst
shape since at least 1985 when it went dormant in November.
Soybeans for delivery in May dropped 1.1 percent to $13.945
a bushel in Chicago, set for a sixth straight retreat. Prices
are down 22 percent from the all-time high of $17.89 touched in
September. The oilseed cost 2.02 times more than corn, compared
with an average of 2.4 times in the past decade. The crops
compete for acreage.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at
msysoyeva@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Claudia Carpenter at
ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net