The amount of wheat inspected for export from the US fell 16 per cent in the most recent week, the US Department of Agriculture has said.
Wheat futures in Chicago, the global benchmark, entered a bear market yesterday, settling 21 per cent below a peak in December. US wheat remains pricey versus competitors in international markets as the dollar climbs to the strongest in more than a decade.
“US wheat is the most expensive wheat in the world in light of the strong U.S. dollar,” economist Dennis Gartman wrote today in his daily Gartman Letter. Ample supply “is bearish of prices.”
Wheat for March delivery was little changed at $5.2025 a bushel at 6:16 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. The price earlier touched $5.175, the lowest since 10 November. Milling wheat in Paris dropped 1.1 per cent to €194.25 ($219.24) a metric ton on Euronext.
Wheat retreated 12 per cent this year and corn and soybeans declined as world output climbs to the highest ever. Bigger corn and wheat crops will expand global grain output excluding rice to a record and lift inventories at the end of the season to the highest in about 30 years, the International Grains Council estimates.
Corn for March delivery rose 0.3 percent to $3.85 a bushel. Soybeans for delivery in March added 0.1 percent to $9.8475 a bushel.
Bloomberg News edited by ESM
