SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Chicago wheat futures climbed 1 percent on Monday, rising for the first time in four sessions as Russia’s threat to bypass a UN-brokered grain deal underpinned prices.
Corn prices eased, weighed down by an improved weather outlook for U.S. plantings.
“Rising Black Sea tensions could underpin U.S. wheat futures…,” said Terry Reilly, a senior analyst at Futures International.
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“The Ukraine export deal is set to expire in May and Turkey is looking to extend it. Meanwhile Russia would like to broker a deal that includes fertilizer exports.”
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) had gained 1 percent to 6.82 a bushel by 0950 GMT. Corn fell 0.2 percent to US$6.42-1/2 a bushel while soybeans added 0.1 percent to US$14.93-1/2 a bushel. Russia on Friday threatened to bypass the UN-brokered grain deal unless obstacles to its agricultural exports were removed, while talks in Turkey agreed removing barriers was a necessary condition to extending the agreement beyond next month.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attending talks in Ankara said he and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed “a failure” to implement the terms of the deal.
He said Russia could work outside it if Western countries maintain what he said were obstacles to agricultural exports that were getting tougher. Ukraine’s grain exports for the 2022/23 season were at 38.8 million tonnes as of April 10, Agriculture Ministry data showed on Monday.
The volume so far in the current July-to-June season included about 13.3 million tonnes of wheat, 22.8 million tonnes of corn and 2.31 million tonnes of barley.
Forecasts for warmer, drier weather in the U.S. Farm Belt weighed on CBOT corn futures, as it will encourage plantings, traders said.
Large speculators trimmed their net short position in CBOT corn futures in the week to April 4, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their net short position in CBOT wheat and raised their net long position in soybeans.
