CANBERRA- Chicago wheat futures rose on Monday as concerns over production in the United States and France triggered short-covering, lifting prices from last week’s four-month low.
Soybean and corn futures also gained but both remained near four-year lows as favorable crop weather in the US Midwest supports expectations of plentiful harvests.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 1.2 percent at $5.49 a bushel after falling to $5.25 on July 16.
CBOT soybeans rose 1.6 percent to $10.52-1/2 a bushel, close to last week’s low of $10.32, and corn gained 1.1 percent to $4.09-1/4 a bushel, near last month’s low of $4.
Plentiful supply has seen speculators build large net short positions in all three contracts, leaving them vulnerable to short-covering.
“The wheat market got sold too hard and is recovering some of that sell-off,” said Ole Houe at IKON Commodities in Sydney, pointing to uncertainty about production in Europe and Russia as the trigger for the price bounce.
