Wheat jumps nearly 1% as USDA pegs stocks at 14-year low

01 Oct, 2021

CANBERRA: US wheat futures rose nearly 1% on Friday to linger near a three-week high as a widely watched US Department report estimated supplies were at a 14-year low.

Soybeans edged lower as the US Department of Agriculture pegged larger-than-expected US supplies, while corn also ticked lower.

The most active wheat futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade were up 0.9% at $7.32 a bushel by 0655 GMT, after closing up 2.1% on Thursday when prices hit a Sept. 7 high of $7.32-3/4 a bushel.

The contract is set to gain 1% for the week, its third straight weekly jump.

"The USDA's latest wheat production and inventory estimates were the catalyst for the gains," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy, Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

US farmers produced 1.646 billion bushels of wheat in 2021, down from 1.826 billion a year ago, the USDA's small grains summary report showed on Thursday. Domestic wheat stocks on Sept. 1 stood at 1.780 billion bushels, the USDA said in its quarterly stocks report.

The most active corn futures were down 0.7% at $5.33-1/4 a bushel after closing down 0.4% in the previous session.

Corn is up more than 1% for the week after closing little changed in the previous week.

The most active soybean futures were down 0.4% at $12.51 a bushel after closing down 2.1% in the previous session.

Soybeans are down 2.5% for the week, their biggest weekly slide since Aug. 20.

US soybean stocks were pegged at a five-year low of 256 million bushels, but this was bigger than analysts' expectations.

Read Comments