Wheat Logs Its Biggest Weekly Decline Since 2011 

Wheat logged its biggest weekly drop since 2011, as traders reassessed the outlook for supplies of the grain.

The price of wheat for July delivery fell 4 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $6.74 a bushel on Friday. The grain has fallen for eight straight days and is down 6.6 percent this week, its biggest such decline since September 2011.

The price has fallen after rainfall in growing areas helped alleviate dry conditions. A government report estimated that global wheat production this year would be the second-highest on record.

Traders may also have taken some profits after a big run-up in the price of the grain since the start of the year, said Sterling Smith, a commodities strategist at Citigroup.

Wheat rose on concerns that a harsh U.S. winter would damage the crop and on worries that exports from Ukraine would fall amid the country’s clash with Russia.

“The U.S. does have a wheat problem,” said Smith. “But generally speaking, the world does have plenty of wheat.”

In other trading of farm products, corn and soybeans fell.

Corn for July delivery eased 0.8 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $4.84 a bushel, sending the grain down 4.6 percent for the week. Soybeans declined 5.25 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $14.65 a bushel.

Metals were mixed.

Silver for July fell 15.5 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $19.33 an ounce. Gold for June was little changed at $1,293.40 an ounce. Platinum for July fell $3.80, or 0.3 percent, to $1,466.10 an ounce.

Copper for July was little changed at $3.15 per pound. Palladium for June rose $2.90, or 0.4 percent, to $815 an ounce.

This article appeared in print in the May 19th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.