Grains Rally on Worries About Drought, USDA Acreage Report

Futures for wheat jumped by the exchange limit on the Chicago Board of Trade, and corn and soybeans also rallied. Prices climbed amid concerns that drought in parts of growing regions of the United States may damage crops. The acreage report from the US Department of Agriculture also affected the prices.

The USDA reported that area planted by wheat in 2017 was at 45.7 million acres, down 9% from 2016 but still below forecasts. Area planted by soybeans was at record 89.5 million acres, up 7% from the previous year, but it was also below analysts’ estimates. Area planted by corn was at 90.9 million acres, down 3% from the previous year, but in this case the actual figure was above the reading predicted by experts. While specialists had expected that soybeans would overtake corn as the number one US crop in terms of acreage, it looks like US farmers actually preferred to plant corn at the expense of wheat and soybeans.

Contract for delivery of wheat in September jumped as much as 6.05% to $5.26 per bushel as of 00:25 GMT on CBoT today. Corn rallied 3.11% to $3.81 per bushel. November soybean futures gained 3.24% to $9.5475 per bushel.

This post was originally published by EarnForex