Wheat falls for third straight day on slowdown fears

U.S. wheat futures declined for the third consecutive day on August 5, as commodities plummeted on concerns that a stalling global economic recovery will undermine demand. Wheat produced overseas also placed pressure on the value of wheat harvested in the United States, according to Reuters. Demand for wheat produced in the United States has suffered from Russian sales of the commodity, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Wheat scheduled for December delivery slid 1.5 percent to $7.145 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, Bloomberg reported. The commodity slid 3.3 percent on the previous day, and has fallen 10 percent this year.

U.S. Labor Department reports indicate that employers added 117,000 jobs in July, and the jobless rate went down to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent. This encouraging data was not enough to alleviate fears of a double-dip recession in the United States.

"Markets seem to be increasing their bets that the U.S. economic recovery indeed turns negative,” Luke Matthews, a commodity strategist, told Bloomberg by phone. "As long as this wider risk aversion persists, we think that grain markets are susceptible to further selling pressure."