US wheat prices up on dwindling supplies

Wheat prices rose by their exchange-imposed limits in Chicago, Kansas City and Minneapolis on Wednesday on declines in supplies of high-protein varieties of the grain in North America, with Chicago and Kansas City seeing the maximum gains for the third session in a row and Minneapolis rising as high as allowed for the fifth straight session.

The Minneapolis Grain Exchange saw March wheat rise to $14.43 per bushel, a new record, and announced that it will raise its daily trade limit for wheat to 40 cents per bushel beginning on 12 February.

Meanwhile, March wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade added 30 cents to $10.33 per bushel, also a new record, and March contracts of the grain on the Kansas City board of Trade also added 30 cents to trade at $10.80 per bushel.

Other grains prices were lower on the session, with CBOT March soybeans falling 4.5 cents to $13.16 per bushel and CBOT March corn dropping 7.75 cents to $5.01 per bushel.

Crude oil prices fell Wednesday as the US Energy Information Administration reported that inventories of crude, gasoline, and distillates all advanced last week while demand declined and refinery capacity dropped by 0.7 percent to 84.3 percent, and some analysts believe they might have fallen farther but for gains in equities markets.

March contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.27 to $87.14 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude for March delivery fell $1.04 to $87.78 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex March gasoline and heating oil were each 3 cents lower, to $2.24 per gallon and $2.42 per gallon respectively, while March natural gas added 5 cents to $8 per million British thermal units.

Stockpiles of crude oil added almost three times the expected amount, growing by 7 million barrels to 300 million barrels, while gasoline inventories added 3.6 million barrels and distillates were up by 100,000 barrels to 127.1 million barrels.

Both precious and base metals prices saw advances on Wednesday.

April gold added had added $15.20 to $905.50 per troy ounce by just after the close of floor trade in New York while March silver added 21 cents to $16.55 per troy ounce and April platinum was up $33.50 to $1,819 per troy ounce.

Meanwhile among base metals, copper was 10 cents higher in New York to trade at $3.31 per pound while three-mont copper in London added $200 to $7,330 per tonne after London Metal Exchange stockpiles dropped 2,800 tonnes during the day to 171,975 tonnes.

Zinc added $10 to $2,385 per tonne while aluminium gained $17 to $2,642 per tonne, lead was up $41 to $2,820 per tonne, tin was $100 higher to $16,775/$16,800 per tonne, and nickel also gained $100 to $26,900 per tonne.

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