Wheat Rises to Two-Week High on U.S. Cold Threat; Soybeans Gain

Wheat closed steady after reaching a two-week high on concern that arctic weather may damage crops in the U.S., the world’s top exporter. Soybeans and corn gained as cold temperatures curtailed farmer sales.

Temperatures dropped below zero degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius), increasing the potential for significant damage to as much as 15 percent of the winter-wheat crop in the U.S. Great Plains, Kyle Tapley, a senior agricultural meteorologist at MDA Weather Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said in a telephone interview. Most of the southern Great Plains and Midwest had 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) of snow to protect dormant crops, he said.