Wheat futures up on higher demand

Prices for December wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade were 2.5 cents higher to $6.91 per bushel on Monday after a report that showed US Department of Agriculture inspections of US wheat for export tripled last week over the same period last year.

A sign of higher demand, around 45.7 million bushes were inspected during the week ending August 16.

Meanwhile, December wheat on the Kansas City Board of Trade added 1 cent to $6.65 per bushel on the news.

October sugar futures on the New York Board of Trade were also higher, adding 0.02 cent to $9.42 cents per pound on reports that while output in India is expected to rise, Brazil’s production is expected to decline.

Also on the New York Board of Trade, November orange juice futures rose 0.9 cents to $1.247 per pound on a new report that has Florida orange production up by 40 percent in the October harvest, less of a rise than in previous estimates.

Orange juice prices were also higher on the approach of the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, which puts Florida corps at risk.

Storm news also affected the price of crude oil with prices sliding as it began to look as if Hurricane Dean would miss US oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and even though there were still concerns that Mexican facilities would be affected by the storm.

September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 86 cents to $71.12 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery fell $1.22 to $69.22 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London.

Nymex September gasoline was 10 cents lower to $1.94 per gallon, October heating oil dropped 4 cents to $2 per gallon, and October natural gas fell 92 cents to $6.20, mainly on relief that Dean would likely not hit Gulf production facilities.

Precious metals prices were mixed on Monday.

The price of both gold and silver were lower as December gold dropped 30 cents in New York to $666.50 per troy ounce and September silver was down 7 cents to $11.74 per troy ounce.

On the other hand, October platinum added $15.80 to $1,247.40 per troy ounce, while September palladium gained $2.20 to $331.95 per troy ounce.

Base metals prices were mixed.

December copper added 2 cents to $3.16 per pound in New York on the session, while it added 0.9 percent to $7,025 per tonne in London.

Tin and lead were also higher in London, up 5.2 percent to $14,050 per tonne and 1.2 percent to $2,920 per tonne respectively, but aluminium was down 0.7 percent to $2,478 per tonne, while nickel dropped 0.9 percent to $26,025 per tonne.

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