Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures rose on Friday as drought conditions in Canada and the northern Plains continue to weigh on the market, as does uncertainty over the future of Ukraine’s wartime grain export shipping deal that is set to expire on Monday.
Corn followed wheat up on yield concerns and technical trading. Old-crop soybeans fell and new-crop soybeans ticked up, as investors continue to question the massive harvests forecast in the U.S. Agriculture Department’s most recent production outlook.
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As the most active soybean futures contract touched a nearly two-week high during the session, some funds and investors sold off beans in profit-taking. Others bought more corn, two traders said.
Still, longer-term forecasts of wetter weather coming to the U.S. grain belt capped any hope for a big rally, traders said.
“Particularly for corn, the market right now is telling us we’re concerned about the yield, but not enough to break out of the trading range that we’ve seen,” said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities.
Agricultural commodities overall on Friday were bolstered by recent weakness in the U.S. dollar, which was poised to end the week to the downside with the Federal Reserve near the end of its rate hiking cycle amid softening inflation.
End-of-week bargain-buying also was expected for wheat futures, after the most-active soft red winter wheat contract hit a one-month low on Thursday.
Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat settled the day up 21-3/4 cents at $6.61-1/2 a bushel (all figures US$). Soybeans settled up one cent to 13.70-3/4 a bushel, and corn climbed 13-1/4 cents to settle at $5.13-3/4 a bushel.
The European Union is helping the United Nations and Turkey try to extend the deal which allows the Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain, and is open to “explore all solutions.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday his country was set to withdraw from the deal unless its own demands are met.
— Reporting for Reuters by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago; additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
