Wheat prices surge on concerns about winter crop

Wheat prices rose 3.5 percent on Thursday on questions about how the dry weather may have done much damage to the winter wheat crop in parts of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Wheat for May delivery rose 25.25 cents to settle at $ 7.395 a bushel.
Department of Agriculture U.S. says that 56 percent of the winter wheat crop in Texas is poor to very poor condition in early March. Oklahoma was a little better with 41 percent of the crop in poor to very poor condition.
The Agricultural Statistics Service Kansas, this week said 37 percent of the crop was in poor to very poor condition.
The forecast is calling for a trace of a quarter inch of rain to the southwestern part of the Great Plains in the next six days, but may not be enough to help harvest, Telvent DTN, said analyst John Sanow.
"It's getting to the point where, you know, you have to question:" Are we at a point of no return with some of the crop? '"He said.
While the U.S. wheat supply is scarce, the world's reserves are still great, despite adverse weather reduced harvests in several countries last year.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's food agency has planned a 3.4 percent increase in world wheat production in 2011.
May corn rose 5.21 cents to settle at $ 7.025 a bushel and soybeans added 3.25 cents to $ 13.545 a bushel.
Other raw materials are mixed as traders sorted through new reports on the U.S. economy.
The Commerce Department said the companies reduce orders in February for long-lasting manufactured goods such as computers, machinery and basic metals. It was the fourth decline in durable goods orders in the last five months.
The Labor Department said the number of people seeking benefits in 5000 declined to a seasonally adjusted total of 382,000 last week.
In the operations of the metals, copper in May fell 0.4 cents to settle at $ 4. 4.245 a pound, platinum was unchanged in April at $ 1.760 an ounce and June palladium rose $ 2.95 to $ 752.25 an ounce.
May gold fell $ 3.10 to settle at $ 1434.90 an ounce, while silver gained 17.7 cents to $ 37.375 an ounce.
Crude prices fell 15 cents to settle at $ 105.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after hovering around $ 106 a barrel, most of the day.
In Nymex trading contracts for April heating oil added 0.68 cents to settle $ 3.0787 a gallon, gasoline rose 2.22 cents to $ 3.0508 per gallon and natural gas fell 9 1 cents to $ 4.244 per 1,000 cubic feet.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110324/ap_on_bi_ge/us_commodities_review_6)