Commodity Blog

Wheat jumped today to the highest level since 2008 on concerns that drought in China will curb supplies while demand is increasing. Most of China’s major wheat-growing regions have below-normal precipitation that affects about 6.75 million hectares of crops. Declining global supplies caused US wheat exports to climb 26 percent and Egypt’s exports to double last year. May futures for wheat delivery gained $0.0525 (0.6 percent) to $9.04 per bushel by 13:15 on CBoT after reaching earlier $9.1675, the highest price for a most-traded contract since August 2008.

China also aided copper as the industrial metal gained on growing demand from the Asian nation. China’s imports of the metal climbed 5.7 percent in January from the previous month, totaling 364,240 metric tons, the most since September and surged as much as 25 percent from a year ago. Contract for delivery of copper in three months rose $192 (1.9 percent) to $10,153 per metric ton as of 17:34 on the LME. The price previously touched the all-time high of $10,168.50.

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