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Sales prod wheat prices
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September 2, 1998: 6:37 p.m. ET
Pakistani and Egyptian purchases boost wheat futures; sugar rallies
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Wheat prices ended higher Wednesday, nudged up by a Pakistani wheat purchase and a big sale of U.S. wheat to Egypt.
Soft red winter wheat futures ranged at closing from 2-1/2 cents to 5 cents a bushel higher on the Chicago Board of Trade. September wheat ended up 3-1/2 at $2.40.
Pakistan this week bought 100,000 tonnes of U.S. white wheat and 200,000 tonnes of Australian white wheat, exporters said. The U.S. wheat will be shipped from the Pacific Northwest, and the Australian wheat from eastern and western ports.
Over the weekend, Egypt bought 50,000 tonnes of U.S. Wheat, while reportedly passing on separate U.S. and French offers of an additional 50,000 tonnes each.
Traders said wheat futures may have also benefited from a technical recovery spurred by signals the market was oversold, and from greater stability in overseas markets.
Sugar gains, but pressures remain
October sugar on the Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange, a division of the New York Board of Trade, closed up 32 cents a pound at $7.70. But traders warned that the commodity must still breach resistance at around $7.80 before the dive of recent weeks can be reversed.
Experts said fund short-covering spurred Wednesday's recovery, offsetting four days of oversold conditions.
F.O. Licht, an industry consultant cited by Reuters, said that despite the recovery Wednesday, financial turbulence in Russia and East Asia would weigh on sugar for some time to come. In its daily report, F.O. Licht cautioned that the prevailing economic gloom will likely spell lower consumption growth in 1998/99.
Experts also said a large 1998/99 crop from Brazil and the European Union, the leading global sugar exporters, was depressing sugar markets. Traders are said to be looking for EU exporters to reduce exports over the next season to alleviate the pressures on prices.
--from staff and wire reports
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