Benzinga's  Instablog

Egypt, which is the world's largest wheat importer, has already seen riots, as have other areas in North Africa, and the Middle East. Crude oil is climbing on these riots, but interestingly enough, wheat is plunging.

The CFTC showed that speculators cut their beats on higher wheat prices over the past week.

“Everyone has been bullish corn and wheat for an extended period,” Michael Pitts, commodity sales director at National Australia Bank Ltd., said by phone from Sydney today. The unrest in North Africa and the Middle East meant “they really ignored some positive fundamentals and sold off.”

The May contract fell 5.75 cents to $7.925 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade

“It's not surprising to see the declines because of increasing risk aversion in the market,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodity research at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “Gold is inching higher and oil is definitely experiencing some inflows.”

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