Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures fell by their daily maximum on Wednesday as investors weighed whether talks between Ukraine and Russia could lead to a ceasefire in the three-week-long war, while rain forecast in the U.S. Plains eased concerns about parched crops.
Corn ended lower as the talks between Moscow and Kyiv tempered fears of prolonged disruption to Black Sea grain exports. Soybeans followed the weak trend, retreating from early strength amid worries of a slowdown in U.S. soy export sales due to competition from Brazil.
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Wheat futures set the tone. Chicago Board of Trade May wheat settled down the daily limit of 85 cents, at $10.69-1/4 per bushel (all figures US$). K.C. May hard red winter wheat also fell 85 cents at $10.72-1/2, and Minneapolis Grain Exchange May spring wheat fell by its 60-cent limit, to $10.50-1/4 a bushel.
Price limits for CBOT and K.C. wheat will expand to 130 cents for Thursday’s trading session.
Wheat prices are still trading about 20 per cent above their levels before Russia invaded on Feb. 24.
CBOT May corn ended down 28 cents at $7.30 a bushel, and May soybeans finished down 9-1/2 cents at $16.49-1/4 a bushel.
Grains declined as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said peace talks were sounding more realistic, but more time was needed, as Russian air strikes killed five people in the capital Kyiv and the refugee tally since Moscow’s invasion reached three million.
“This market was run on fear — mainly the fear of the unknown,” said Jeff French, owner of Ag Hedgers. “We’re getting less unknown here. So the fear in the grains is subsiding.”
Traders are beginning to square portions ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s March 31 planting intentions and quarterly grain stocks reports.
“The market, old-crop corn and beans specifically, is very comfortable range trading ahead of that report,” said Dan Hussey, senior market strategist at Zaner Group.
An annual survey by commodity brokerage Allendale Inc. projected that U.S. farmers will plant 92.4 million acres of corn in 2022, down about one per cent from last year, while soybean acres could expand 2.4 per cent to 89.3 million acres. Read full story
Meanwhile, U.S. winter wheat could benefit from rains expected in the central and southern Plains in the next 10 days, the Commodity Weather Group said in a note.
— Reporting for Reuters by Christopher Walljasper in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai.
