Chicago | Reuters — Chicago wheat futures climbed on Thursday after a vessel hit a mine in the Black Sea, an incident that underscores the continuing security risks along the key global grain trade shipping route.
Corn and soybean futures fell as traders assessed a rainy forecast in South America that could be beneficial for drought-affected crop belts in Brazil.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wv1 ended up 8-1/2 cents, or 1.4 per cent, at $6.31-1/2 a bushel.
A bulk carrier headed to a River Danube port to load grain hit a Russian mine in the Black Sea on Wednesday, injuring two crew members, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
Read Also
Alberta crop conditions improve: report
Varied precipitation and warm temperatures were generally beneficial for crop development across Alberta during the week ended July 8, according to the latest provincial crop report released July 11.
The contract also was pushed higher by funds short-covering their positions, along with the Black Sea news, said Joe Davis, director of commodity sales at Futures International.
“It’s been back and forth this whole week. It’s a holiday week, so it’s low volume. So any type of flow is going to be more pronounced in a low-volume trade,” he said.
Traders said market reaction to such incidents tended to be short-lived given disruption to maritime traffic, including through a Black Sea corridor established by Kyiv, has been limited.
The wheat market was also reacting to Egypt’s state grains buyer the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) on Thursday saying it had cancelled an international tender for wheat with no purchases made. Traders said they believed prices offered were regarded as too high.
CBOT corn Cv1 finished down 2-1/4 cents at $4.74-1/4 a bushel while soybeans settled down 8-1/2 cents at $13.12 a bushel.
Weather charts showed uneven showers in the week ahead in dry parts of central and northern Brazil, one of the top global corn and soybean producers, before widespread heavy rain expected in early January.
–Additional reporting for Reuters by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
