Market research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres predicts underlying revenue growth for the first six months of the year to be over 5% compared with forecasts of 4% growth. Sugar and sweeteners firm Tate & Lyle moved higher following a Credit Suisse upgrade to 'outperform' from 'neutral' with price target raised to 640p from 630p. The housebuilder generated good interim pre-tax profit growth in line with the group's internal expectations, but cautioned that recently it has seen a slowdown in both...

NEW YORK - Wheat futures surged Thursday amid signs of strong export demand and rain that continued to drown the harvest in parts of the Midwest. Meanwhile, a monthlong truce ended this week between the government and a key militant group, fueling worries that violence could increase and further threaten oil production. Overseas, industrial metals finished mostly lower on the London Metal Exchange, although copper bucked the trend to close higher as stocks held by the exchange continued to...

All across eastern Colorado, semitrailer trucks and standard farm trucks are lining up at weigh scales. Too much rain in other areas that produce wheat, including Oklahoma and Texas, is helping raise prices. A shortage of migrant labor has meant some farmers have had to help their neighbors. Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the Colorado Association of Wheat Growers, said 83 million bushels are expected, compared with 39 million last year.

BEIJING China must step up its fight against shoddy food and drugs and the corrupt officials who have let them flourish, or it faces social unrest and a further tarnished image abroad, senior party and regulatory officials said. Fears abroad over Chinese-made products were sparked last year by the deaths of dozens of people in Panama who took medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol imported from China. The comments came at a State Food and Drug Administration seminar where officials...

Fields that once grew other crops such as soybeans or wheat have been switched over to corn, adding an area twice the size of Maryland to the ethanol-industrial complex. But the House has produced an energy bill that not only omits the policies that could have a real impact -- a cap-and-trade policy or a carbon tax -- but also lacks the toughened fuel-economy standards included in the Senate version. Print This Article E-Mail This Article RSS Feed Related Articles Sheehan Threatens to Run...