Chicago | Reuters — Chicago wheat futures rose for the first time in three sessions on bargain buying on Wednesday, with corn futures following, traders said.
Wheat futures also gained a mid-session boost on rekindled market speculation that India, a leading wheat producer, may be tight on supplies.
India raised the price at which it buys locally produced new-season wheat by seven per cent, the country’s information minister said on Wednesday, to encourage farmers to expand the growing area as New Delhi tries to increase production.
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Meanwhile soybean futures hit a three-week high early in the day, which also boosted corn and wheat futures, as demand in the U.S. domestic market continued to underpin prices.
Soybean futures trading was volatile — with most contracts turning down at one point — as the soymeal market rallied in part on export demand and tight supplies, and on news that U.S. exporters had sold 132,000 metric tonnes of soybeans to China for the 2023-24 marketing year.
Some traders are betting that seasonal price lows have been set and U.S. farmers are wrapping up their harvest.
“Right now, the beans have the ability on their own fundamentals to look over their shoulder at the feed grains and ask, ‘Are you coming along or what?'” said Mike Zuzolo, president of Global Commodity Analytics.
But growers have been showing hit-or-miss interest in booking new deals even as cash prices for corn hovered around $5 a bushel and soybean prices around $13 a bushel in many areas (all figures US$).
Instead, some farmers are betting that severe drought in parts of Brazil may help fuel a commodity price rally later in the season, grain elevator sources said.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) settled up 9-3/4 cents at $5.80-1/4 a bushel.
Soybeans closed up 14-1/4 cents at $13.11 a bushel, after rising earlier in the session to $13.13 a bushel, the highest since Sept. 27. Corn settled up three cents to $4.92/bu.
— Reporting for Reuters by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago, Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.
