Wheat Falls to Five-Month Low as Sowing Forecast Tops Estimates

Wheat fell to a five-month low after a government report showed U.S. growers may plant more than estimated.

Farmers may seed wheat on 53.8 million acres, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report. That topped the average estimate of 53.3 million acres in a Bloomberg News survey of 27 analysts. The most-active futures fell as much as 3.1 percent to the lowest price since Oct. 7.

“If you look at the acreage, all wheat was little more than the average guess,” said Jason Britt, the president of Central States Commodities Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri. “The all-wheat planting numbers could influence this market to the downside.”

Wheat futures for May delivery fell 14.25 cents, or 3 percent, to $4.5775 a bushel at 10:28 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Earlier, the price touched $4.575. Before today, the grain fell 13 percent this year, heading for the seventh quarterly drop in the past eight quarters.

Wheat is the fourth-biggest U.S. crop, valued at $10.6 billion in 2009, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government data show.

Tony C. Dreibus
Source: Bloomberg