Crop futures rise on wet weather concerns

Prices for corn, soybeans and wheat ended higher as traders worried about more crop delays caused by wet weather.

Corn for July delivery rose 7.75 cents to $6.62 a bushel Friday, an increase of 1.2 percent. Soybeans for delivery in the same month rose 14.25 cents to $15.10 a bushel. July wheat rose 6.75 cents to $7.055 a bushel.

Wet weather in crop-growing states like North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa sent crop prices higher across the board, said Chris Nagel, market analyst at Northstar Commodity in Minneapolis.

"You're seeing more concern about the weather forecast and what's going to get planted," Nagel said. "The spring wheat crop planting is pretty much at a standstill is likely to stay that way for a while."

Metals prices fell. The actively traded August contract for gold fell $19 to $1,393 an ounce, a loss of 1.3 percent. Silver for July delivery fell 44.7 cents to $22.243 an ounce.

July platinum fell $20.90 to $1,461.80 an ounce, September palladium fell $6.90 to $753.65 an ounce and July copper fell 2.3 cents to $3.2925 a pound.

The price of crude oil fell $1.64 to $91.97 a barrel. Oil fell to its lowest level in a month after OPEC stuck to its current production target despite ample supplies of crude.

In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline fell 5 cents to close at $2.76 a gallon, heating oil fell 6 cents to close at $2.78 per gallon and natural gas fell 4 cents to close at $3.98 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crop-futures-rise-wet-weather-concerns-194920615.html

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