Wheat posts biggest monthly gain since 1959

US wheat futures rose over 5 per cent on Friday and were set to post the biggest monthly percentage gain since at least 1959 as drought decimated the crop in dominant global supplier Russia. The gains in wheat boosted corn and soybean futures for a third straight day and roughly 10 percent for the month, even as favorable weather in the US Midwest buoyed crop prospects.

Wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) gained 42 percent in July, were up 55 percent from the the lows in June and exceeded a 38 percent gain in 1964, according to records going back to 1959 from the Commodity Trend Service, a private charting firm. The spot wheat contract was up 34 cents at $6.61-1/2 per bushel at the close of trading on Friday. Investor funds bought an estimated 16,000 CBOT wheat futures contracts, 80 million bushels or 3.6 percent of this year's estimated U.S. wheat production of 2.216 billion bushels.