December 1, 2010

CBOT wheat advances due to damaged Australian crop
 

CBOT wheat futures advanced on speculation that rains in Australia will affect the harvest, therefore limiting supplies available to buyers.

Wheat for March delivery gained as much as 0.8% to US$6.9575 a bushel on CBOT.

Showers and thunderstorms are likely to take place at regions from southeastern parts of South Australia into Victoria, and eastern parts of New South Wales and Queensland in the next few days, with some parts getting over an inch of rain, according to a weather forecast.

"We are not going to come in on expectations," an analyst said. "Dry weather concerns for the winter crop in the US are also a big or global supply," he said.

Wheat-harvest in Australia is forecast at 23.19 million tonnes this season and it remained the same from a July estimate, the Foreign Agricultural Service of USDA said last month.

That compares with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics-Bureau of Rural Sciences forecast of 25.1 million tonnes in 2010-2011 on September 14.