Wheat’s weekly losses pile up after leading this year’s farm price rally

What happened

Wheat futures are on track for an eighth straight weekly decline, their longest losing streak since 1997, Bloomberg reported. That is a sharp turnaround: earlier this year, wheat led a run-up in prices across agricultural commodities.

Why it matters

Wheat goes into bread, flour tortillas, pasta and cookies, so its price is one of the many costs behind what you pay at the grocery store. In general, cheaper raw materials take time to reach store shelves, if they reach them at all, because transport, wages and packaging also count. Food prices also feed into inflation, which central banks watch when they set interest rates.