Grains
Wheat, corn and barley as exchange-traded commodities with a calendar of their own.
How to read the number
Price follows the crop year: sowing, the weather in the critical weeks and the harvest set the rhythm of the swings more than macroeconomics does.
When the metric lies
The decisive weeks fall in different months in the northern and southern hemispheres. One region's calendar cannot be carried over to the world market as a whole.
Also known as: grain market