Wheat and soya jump

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures jumped 1.3 percent on Thursday, posting its biggest one day advance in two weeks on concerns about production declines in the US Plains hard red winter wheat belt due to freeze damage while soyabeans leaped 1.4 percent, the most in a month, on soaring US cash soya markets.
Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) hard red winter (HRW) wheat for May delivery leaped 3.3 percent, or 24-3/4 cents per bushel ending the session at $7.63-3/4 per bushel, posting the biggest one day advance for a spot KCBT wheat futures contract in five months. Wheat traded on the KCBT is the kind grown in the Plains states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the area affected by a series of freezes in April.
Support to grains and the soya complex also stemmed from outside markets with a big rebound in gold and a weak dollar cited as influences. "We have an overall commodity short-covering scenario here. Everything from copper to crude oil is up, grains and livestock are included," said Mike Zuzolo, analyst for Global Commodity Analytics.
Gold was soaring nearly 3 percent and crude oil up over 2 percent when grain futures neared their close of trading at 1:15 pm CDT (1815 GMT). Corn rode the coattails of soyabeans and wheat to a higher close with a sale of US corn to global consuming giant China contributing to the advances.
The USDA, in its weekly crop progress report on Monday, said only 4 percent of the US corn crop had been planted, up from 2 percent a week earlier but well behind the 16 percent five-year average for the week. CBOT soyabeans for May delivery were up 19-1/2 cents at $14.23-1/2 per bushel, May delivery corn was up 5-3/4 cents at $6.45-1/2, and wheat for May delivery was up 9-1/2 cents at $7.01-1/4.
Thirty-five percent of the US winter wheat crop was in good-to-excellent condition, down from 36 percent a week earlier and well below the 63 percent of a year earlier. Only 7 percent of the US spring wheat crop had been planted, up from 6 percent a week earlier but well behind the 24 percent five-year average. US weather issues also continued to rattle the corn market with bullish input from slow seedings pitted against bearish influences from recent improved soil moisture profiles in the drought-stricken US Midwest.