Wheat and soya futures fell on Monday but were on track to end the year with the best performance in a basket of commodities including crude oil as demand lifted prices and the worst drought in half a century crimped supplies. Wheat posted the biggest gain this year among the 19 commodities in the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, soaring 18.2 percent despite falling for three straight months to close the year and tumbling nearly 9 percent in December.
Soyabeans were the second best, rising 18 percent, while corn has gained 6.8 percent, notching its fourth straight year of gains despite ending 2012 with a five-month losing streak. Wheat, corn and soyabeans outperformed the CRB, which was down 3.7 percent for the year.
The grains market has pulled back sharply in recent months, with soyabeans down 11.7 percent in the fourth quarter, breaking a streak of four positive quarters in a row and on track for the worst quarterly loss since the third quarter of 2009. Corn is off 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter due to weakening demand from exporters as well as ethanol producers, and wheat has fallen 14.6 percent over the last three months of the year. Both grains notched their worst quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2011.
The weakness in wheat worsened in December as export demand failed show up even as prices retreated near six-month lows. The front-month contract was down 8.8 percent for the month, the biggest monthly decline since September 2011. At 9:40 am CDT (1540 GMT), CBOT March wheat was off 8 cents at $7.70-3/4 a bushel. CBOT January soyabeans were down 10 cents at $14.14 a bushel and CBOT March corn was 3-1/4 cents lower at $6.90-3/4 a bushel.
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