Wheat Gains as Drought Threatens Ukraine, Egypt Buys From U.S.

Wheat Gains as Drought Threatens Ukraine, Egypt Buys From U.S.

Wheat rose the most this month in
Chicago, rebounding from the biggest weekly drop since December,
as adverse weather threatened Ukraine’s crop and Egypt bought
U.S. grain.
The former Soviet state will have to replant almost half of
its winter grains with spring crops due to severe frosts, Prime
Minister Mykola Azarov said in a statement on the government’s
website last week. Egypt agreed Feb. 11 to buy 55,000 metric
tons of U.S. wheat.
“In Ukraine, nearly half of the winter grain acreage will
probably have to be planted with summer grain, which is likely
to cause the wheat crop to decline considerably,” Carsten
Fritsch, Commerzbank AG analyst, said in an e-mailed report.
“This helped shore up prices, as did news that Egypt gave
preference at the weekend to U.S. wheat over the products of
other suppliers.”
Wheat for March delivery climbed 1.4 percent to $6.3875 a
bushel by 1:42 p.m. London time on the Chicago Board of Trade,
the biggest gain since Jan. 31. The grain declined 4.7 percent
last week, the most since the five days ended Dec. 9. Milling
wheat for March delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris was
little changed at 191.75 euros ($253.97) a ton.
“U.S. wheat is back in the market,” Dean Smith, an
analyst at Rabobank International, said by phone from Sydney
today. “Ukrainian and Russian wheat are now less competitive
than what they were a month ago.”
Corn for March delivery advanced 0.8 percent to $6.3675 a
bushel in Chicago and soybeans for March delivery gained 0.9
percent to $12.3975 a bushel.