Today's M^3 - Wheat Futures Down Over 23% for the Year

Our Major Market Move feature today looks at Wheat Futures which closed down 23% yesterday, making wheat the worst performing commodity of the year. A good portion of that decline was suffered just this past week, with a drop of 7.4%.


Price inflation is not unanimous across the commodity complex with several commodities suffering double digit price declines since the beginning of the year:



Goldman Sachs is predicting that because of improving yields, both corn and wheat will continue to decline.

Corn and wheat will be $5.90 a bushel in three months, down from estimates of $8, Damien Courvalin and Allison Nathan, New York-based analysts at the investment bank, said today in a report. Yesterday, corn futures in Chicago tumbled the most since November and wheat had the biggest plunge since January 2009 following the USDA report.

These comments need to be taken with a grain of salt considering the accuracy of Goldman's previous predictions. From the same article:

Corn will be $5.75 in six months and $5.70 in 12 months, down from projections of $7.80 and $7, Goldman said. Wheat will be $6 in six months and $6.20 in 12 months, down from $8.35 for six and 12 months, the bank said.

(Click on the images for a larger view.
Click here for the current chart of wheat futures.
Click here for the current table of commodity futures.)