Wheat Set for Longest Slump in 15 Years as Rain Aids Crop

[Purveyor]

By Whitney McFerron and Phoebe Sedgman May 19, 2014 8:04 AM ET

Wheat dropped for a ninth session, heading for the longest run of declines since September 1998, on speculation that rain may aid U.S. crops, bolstering global supplies. Corn slid to a seven-week low.

Wheat fell 9.9 percent since reaching a 14-month high on May 6 after the U.S. government predicted ample world supplies, even as drought threatened domestic production. Western areas of Texas and Oklahoma and parts of Kansas and Colorado may see rain later this week through the weekend, AccuWeather Inc. said in a report today. Drought conditions retreated in the High Plains in the past week, covering 33 percent of the area compared with 36 percent a week earlier, the U.S. Drought Monitor said.

“Following a prolonged period of dry weather, rainfall has brought relief to key U.S. growing areas and is likely to improve the condition of U.S. winter wheat plants,” Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in an e-mailed note today.

Wheat for July delivery fell 0.5 percent to $6.7075 a bushel at 6:48 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Earlier, the price touched $6.655, the lowest since April 11. A ninth day of declines would be the longest slump for a most-active contract since the period ended Sept. 1, 1998. Milling wheat for November delivery on Euronext in Paris dropped 1 percent today to 197.25 euros ($270.57) a metric ton.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-19/wheat-set-for-longest-slump-in-15-years-as-rain-aids-u-s-crops.html

[bigmonkey]

1. Oh crap, food!

Our economic system is very strange.

[surrealAmerican]

2. There's just no getting this right, is there?

A bad crop is bad; a good crop is bad.

Your post made me laugh, though. It sure does make it sound like there's no possible way our economic system could ever work.

[SoCalDem]

4. Exactly..

Because we have turned EVERYTHING into a casino, where people buy and sell "chances to buy & sell" everything..

Companies fire 1500 people and their "market value" soars..and yet with mass firings, their products are less and less likely to sell ...

Farmers get no rain & suffer crop failure, and they lose.. they get rain and the value of their crops drop

It's a lose-lose..and of course products just cost more and more no matter what happens..

When wheat prices are even rumored to be going up, bread & cereal products IMMEDIATELY jump... but when there are bumper crops, those prices rarely retreat.. Why sell bread for a lower price when people will pay a higher one

[NightWatcher]

3. glad I've gone gluten free

Just kidding. I saw a bit on Jimmy Kimmel's show where all these 'on the street' people said they had gone gluten free but couldn't say what gluten actually was. A few of them thought it had something to do with wheat but that was about it.