Wheat Rises on Speculation Dollar Drop Will Boost U.S. Exports

Wheat rose for the first time in four days on speculation that a slumping dollar will revive demand for grain from the U.S., the world’s largest exporter.

The dollar fell as much as 0.8 percent against a basket of six currencies, boosting the appeal of wheat for importers and investors seeking an inflation hedge. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities rose as much as 0.7 percent before retreating. Speculators may have bought futures to close bets that prices would fall, after wheat dropped to a one-month low yesterday.

“The dollar weakness overnight is helping the market,” said Frank Cholly, a senior market strategist at broker Lind- Waldock in Chicago. “There’s talk that the markets are a little oversold, so it’s a bit of short-covering. The energies and the metals are higher and the dollar is down, so those things are contributing to the strength in wheat.”

Wheat futures for May delivery rose 6.5 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $4.8525 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. The commodity dropped 1.7 percent this week, after falling 5 percent in the previous week. The most-active contract is down 10 percent this year, partly because of slack demand for U.S. grain and rising global inventories.

At least 13 percent of Ukraine’s winter grain crop was damaged by cold weather, the nation’s Hydrometeorology Center said. Some fields have been covered with ice for more than 70 days, said Tetiana Adamenko, the head of the center’s agriculture department.

Ukraine is the world’s fifth-biggest wheat exporter, behind the U.S., Canada, Russia and Australia, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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

By Tony C. Dreibus
Source: Bloomberg