December Corn Future on Chicago Board Trade Jump 30 Cent

December corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade opened by jumping 30 cents, the maximum daily increase allowed, to $7.18 a bushel. Trading ended the day at $7.14. Soybean futures for the November contract opened at $13.53 a bushel, an increase of $0.52. The contract closed at $13.32. Wheat prices also rose, with the September futures contract on the Kansas City Board of Trade closing at $8.08 a bushel, a gain of $0.23.

?The markets over the past couple of weeks have been trying to figure out which is dropping faster, supply or demand,? said Chad E. Hart, an assistant professor of economics at Iowa State University. He said the U.S.D.A. reports, including the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates known as Wasde, provided an answer: ?What the Wasde report said is, supply.?

High commodity prices will translate into higher meat prices because the cost of feeding cattle, pigs and poultry with grain will go up, forcing producers to raise fewer animals.

And pasta prices will be pushed up because the crop of durum wheat, the variety used to make pasta, is forecast to be almost half as big as last year?s, because of flooding in North Dakota.

The average retail pasta price is currently $1.53 a pound, according to the National Pasta Association, a trade group, and Walter N. George, president of the American Italian Pasta Company, said that may eventually increase by 10 to 20 cents.

?The shopper may see slightly higher prices at retail, and over the course of the next 18 months should see those prices begin to come to more normal levels given a replenishment of the durum stocks,? he said.