Regulators To Probe Jump In Wheat Price

Futures regulators and the Chicago Board of Trade said Thursday they have launched an inquiry into a frantic trading session that sent wheat futures prices rocketing to an all-time high.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will recreate the minute-by-minute actions Wednesday that led to the expiring March wheat contract rocketing 48 percent higher to $7.50 a bushel, acting CFTC Chairman John Tull said.

“This was probably the most hectic and fastest market in history,” Tull said. “There could be wrongdoing in the market, manipulation, it could be a natural phenomenon. At this point, we don’t know what to expect.”

Traders and exchange officials say it was merely a case of a major firm getting caught short.

Produce Grain Co., a commercial grain dealer and division of St. Louis-based Bunge Corp., apparently bet incorrectly that wheat prices would fall as the contract went off the board. In the final minutes of trading, Bunge needed to buy 400,000 bushels of wheat to cover its position and struggled to find a seller.