Wheat Drops for First Time in Six Days as Five-Month High Reduces Demand

Wheat fell for the first day in six in Chicago on speculation that a rally to a five-month high will reduce demand from investors. Corn and soybeans also dropped.

Wheat gained 8 percent in the past five sessions on speculation adverse weather in South America, China and the U.S. curbed production. Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators pared their net-long position in Chicago wheat futures by 1 percent in the week ended Jan. 18, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.

“Everybody is aware of the weather situations going on right now,” said Connor Noonan, an analyst with Castlestone Management in London. “Everybody has priced in the floods inAustralia, and now we have flooding in South America. All of that combined, people are taking a little off the table.”

Wheat for March delivery slid 12.75 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $8.225 a bushel at 1:14 p.m. London time on the Chicago Board of Trade. The most-active contract climbed to the highest price since Aug. 6 yesterday. Milling wheat for March delivery declined 1.75 euros, or 0.7 percent, to 259.50 euros ($353.18) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe in Paris.

“The wheat market has been strong and last night outstripped the gains across the other commodity classes,” Luke Mathews, a strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said by phone from Sydney. Investors may be cashing in gains from the rally in the past five sessions, he said.

Corn for March delivery declined for a second day in Chicago, losing 9.25 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $6.46 a bushel. March-delivery soybeans slid 12.5 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $13.92 a bushel.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-25/wheat-drops-first-day-in-six-as-rally-to-five-month-high-may-damp-demand.html)