In Commodity News 01/07/2017
U.S. wheat rose for a fourth consecutive session on Friday to hit a one-year high as fears of production losses in a key producing of the United States pushed the grain towards its biggest monthly gain in two years.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most active wheat futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade edged up after a near-five percent gain in the previous session to hit $4.99 a bushel, its highest since June last year.
* Wheat has so far risen 16 percent during June, the biggest monthly rise in two years. For the quarter wheat is up 17 percent, also its biggest rise in two years.
* The most active soybean futures were down more than 3 percent for the quarter after posting losses of nearly 6 percent in the previous quarter.
* The most active corn futures up nearly 2 percent for the quarter, the third straight quarterly gain.
* The latest weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday by a consortium of climatologists, showed “extreme drought” covering 25 percent of North Dakota, by far the top U.S. spring wheat producer, up from about 8 percent a week ago
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture was scheduled to release updated U.S. plantings figures on Friday. Analysts expect the USDA to lower its U.S. spring wheat plantings estimate to 11.2 million acres, from its March forecast of 11.3 million.
MARKET NEWS
* The U.S. dollar held around a nearly 14-month low against the euro on Thursday on growing expectations of more hawkish monetary policies in Europe and Canada and on skepticism of another Federal Reserve interest rate increase this year.
* Oil futures ended slightly higher on Thursday, extending crude’s rally to a sixth straight session after a decline in weekly U.S. crude production temporarily eased concerns about deepening oversupply.
* A rally in U.S. stocks fizzled, leaving major indexes with modest gains on Friday, as Wall Street was torn between hope that U.S. economic data signals better times ahead and fear Europe’s debt crisis will engulf world economies.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Richard Pullin)
