Wheat, Corn Futures Hit Five-Year Highs

The stock market isn’t providing much action for traders lately, but they can find plenty of it in commodities markets.

On Monday, wheat and corn futures in Chicago hit five-year highs on fears that weather problems will delay harvests and damage crops in the U.S. and Canada.

In New York, gold’s latest rally continued, driving prices to seven-week highs on jitters about possible new terrorist attacks.

Wheat for September delivery jumped 11.5 cents to $4.15 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, the highest price since May 1997.

Wheat is up 46% year to date, putting it on track for its biggest annual rise since 1991, after drought early in the year stunted plant growth in North America and Australia.

Now the problem is too much rain in some areas: As much as 1.7 inches of rain fell Sunday in Minnesota, the second-largest U.S. spring-wheat grower, the National Weather Service said.

The harvest also has been on hold in parts of the western Canadian prairies and the northern U.S. Plains for three weeks because rain makes wheat stalks too wet to cut.

September corn futures gained 5.75 cents to $2.79 a bushel, the highest since October 1997. The corn crop also suffered this year from drought conditions in many areas.

The return of hot, dry weather this week in parts of the Midwest is fueling new concerns about the crop.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that 41% of the corn crop rated “good or excellent,” down from 54% at this time a year ago.

In gold futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the September contract rose $1.40 to $321.30 an ounce, highest since July 22.

The approach of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks is “boosting the appeal of gold as a refuge,” said Carlos Perez-Santalla, president of Hudson River Futures in New York. But he said gold could tumble if this week passes with no terrorist incidents.

Gold, which was trading for $272 before last year’s attacks, reached a 4 1/2 year high of $327.80 in early June, then turned choppy. The price tumbled as low as $302.40 in late July as the stock market began to rally from five-year lows and some investors shifted money from gold to stocks.

But the metal has been in a new uptrend since Aug. 26.