Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures sank 2.5 percent on Monday to their lowest in more than three weeks, on track for their fifth straight losing session on pressure from dollar strength and a pick-up in the pace of harvest, traders said. Soyabean and corn futures also fell, weighed down by improving weather for crop development in the US Midwest as well as technical weakness.
The firm dollar weighed across the commodities sector as it made US offerings more expensive to overseas buyers and lessened their attractiveness as an inflationary hedge. Chicago Board of Trade September wheat futures were down 15 cents at $5.39 a bushel at 11:13 am CDT (1613 GMT). Prices bottomed out at $5.38, their lowest June 26, earlier in the session.
"Harvest is zipping along and we don't have any demand," said Mark Gold, managing partner with Top Third Ag Marketing. A turn to warmer weather across the US Midwest this weekend helped dry out soaked fields in much of the eastern Corn Belt. CBOT August soyabeans were down 6-1/4 cents at $10.08-1/2 a bushel while CBOT September corn was 7-1/4 cents lower at $4.13 a bushel.