Wheat rose amid expectations demand for supplies from the U.S. and Europe will increase as the pace of exports from the Black Sea region slows.
Egypt’s wheat tender two days ago didn’t receive any offers from Ukraine and Romania, even as the world’s largest importer of the grain agreed to buy the 120,000 metric tons offered from Russia. The tender attracted nine offers for French wheat and one for U.S. grain.
“Despite a disappointing result of the tender toward Egypt at the start of the week, where the Russian origin was picked, exporters remain confident about export prospects this year,” Paris-based farm adviser Agritel wrote. “After numerous sales at the start of the campaign, the availability of soft wheat in the Black Sea basin is now reducing.”
Wheat for March delivery rose 0.4 percent to $6.58 a bushel by 7:45 a.m., when trading paused on the Chicago Board of Trade, trimming this year’s decline for the grain to 15 percent. Futures trading volumes were 21 percent higher than the average for the past 100 days at this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. Milling wheat futures traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris added 0.7 percent to 207 euros ($279).
U.S. exporters sold 110,000 tons of soft red winter wheat to Egypt for delivery by May 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported yesterday. The agency is scheduled to report crop export sales later today.
“The export figures will be followed with interest today, with notably wheat exports expected to be up,” Agritel said.
Soybeans for January delivery rose 0.8 percent to $12.845 a bushel, rising for the first time in three days on expectations that demand will climb for supplies from the U.S., the world’s second-biggest shipper.
Prices for the oilseed dropped to $12.6825 on Nov. 19, the lowest since Nov. 8, and tumbled 8.9 percent this year.
Record Crop
Farmers worldwide will harvest a record 286.5 million tons of soybeans, 5.2 million tons more than forecast a month ago and 19.3 million tons bigger than last year’s crop, researcher Oil World said Nov. 19.
U.S. export sales were probably 500,000 tons to 1 million tons in the week ended Nov. 14, up from 441,031 tons a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey.
“There’s decent demand on one hand and very large supplies on the other,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said by phone from Sydney.
The USDA inspected 87.809 million bushels of soybeans for export in the week ended Nov. 14. That’s 27 percent higher from a year earlier, USDA data showed. The agency raised its forecast for world output on Nov. 8 to a record 283.54 million tons from a forecast of 281.66 million tons in September. Brazil is the top shipper.
Corn for March delivery advanced 0.5 percent to $4.275 a bushel.
