Iin Commodity News 12/10/2016
Chicago wheat rose for a second session on Tuesday as concerns over dryness in U.S. wheat growing regions and excessive rains in Australia’s grain belt prompted investors to cover short positions.
Soybeans edged higher after two days of declines although gains were capped by expectations of higher yields in the United
States while corn extended gains after finishing 1 percent higher on Monday.
The Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat contract climbed 0.4 percent to $4.05-1/4 a bushel by 0236 GMT. That was
near their session-peak of $4.05-3/4 a bushel, highest since Oct. 6.
Soybeans gained 0.3 percent to $9.57 a bushel and corn rose 0.2 percent to $3.43-3/4 a bushel.
“There are more concerns about the Australian crop than what we had a month ago as the weather outlook going into harvest is
wet on the east coast,” said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.
“We are seeing some short covering in CBOT wheat, having said that we are not talking about a rally, it is just rising
from multi-year lows.”
As of Oct. 4, commodity funds held their largest net short position in CBOT wheat on record, weekly data released on Friday
from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed, leaving the market vulnerable to short-covering rallies.
Gains in soybeans are being checked by an active harvest weekend in the U.S. Midwest.
Analysts expect the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday to raise its forecast of the U.S. soybean yield, which the government has already projected at a record-high 50.6 bushels per acre.
The agency in its monthly supply-demand report is expected to trim estimates for U.S. corn yields.
In news, Russian wheat prices rose slightly last week on the back of increased demand from buyers and a stronger rouble.
Black Sea prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein content were at $173.50 a tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis
at the end of last week, up $2.50 from a week earlier, Russian agricultural consultancy SovEcon said in a note.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
