Mexico City | Reuters — Chicago soybeans ended down and corn was flat on Monday, as U.S. planting progressed ahead of last year and uncertainty over whether Ukraine’s safe shipping agreement for grain exports will be extended with the deal set to expire on May 18.
Corn, one of the crops exported out of Ukraine, ended flat at $5.96-1/2 a bushel while soybeans settled down 2-3/4 cents at $14.33-3/4 a bushel (all figures US$).
The U.S. Agriculture Department said in its weekly crop progress report that 49 per cent of the U.S. corn crop had been planted compared to 21 per cent a year earlier, while 35 per cent of soybeans were planted compared to 11 per cent this time last year.
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U.S. wheat futures closed higher on Thursday on concerns over the limited availability of supplies for export in Russia, analysts said.
The report also showed a slight improvement to winter wheat ratings, though 29 per cent in good and excellent condition was less than what analysts had expected.
“There’s lots of rhetoric out there about the hard red winter wheat crop in dire conditions, and whatever rain that materializes over the near term for Oklahoma and Kansas, it’s probably too little too late,” said Tom Fritz, a partner with EFG Group in Chicago.
Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat lost 6-1/4 cents to settle at $6.54 a bushel, after hitting a two-week high of $6.69 a bushel earlier in the session.
Ukraine’s reconstruction ministry said Russia has effectively stopped the Black sea grain deal by refusing to register incoming vessels.
Moscow has threatened to quit the agreement, while Turkey and the United Nations are working to extend it.
Ukraine is also a wheat exporter.
“Russia is no longer inspecting incoming ships to the Ukrainian ports, so it pretty much shuts down exports coming out of Ukraine,” Fritz said.
The agricultural markets were looking ahead to a monthly U.S. crop production report due out on Friday.
— Reporting for Reuters by Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City and Michael Hogan in Hamburg; additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
