Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures rose on Wednesday along with corn and soybeans on renewed concerns about the Ukraine war that has disrupted grain shipments from the Black Sea region, analysts said.
However, trade was muted somewhat as brokers awaited U.S. plantings and quarterly stocks figures due out on Thursday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Chicago Board of Trade May wheat futures settled up 13 cents at $10.27-1/4 per bushel but stayed inside of Tuesday’s unusually wide trading range (all figures US$). CBOT May corn ended up 11-3/4 cents at $7.38 a bushel and May soybeans rose 21 cents to finish at $16.64 a bushel.
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Wheat and corn firmed as Russian attacks in Ukraine continued, a day after commodity markets had fallen as Russia promised to reduce military operations around Kyiv.
“We are seeing a little premium being put back in place because of the war, and concerns about how many acres they (Ukrainian farmers) will be able to seed this spring,” said Brian Hoops, president of U.S. brokerage Midwest Market Solutions. Acreage losses in Ukraine could pressure producers in the U.S. and elsewhere to grow more, he said.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect USDA on Thursday to project U.S. 2022 corn plantings at 92 million acres, down from 93.4 million in 2021, while soybean plantings were seen rising to 88.7 million acres, from 87.2 million last year. Wheat acres were seen expanding to 47.8 million acres, from 46.7 million in 2021.
“Regardless of what the government says tomorrow, we need to increase corn, soybean, wheat acres because of what is going on around the globe. Our balance sheets have tightened up,” Hoops said.
Rain in dry U.S. and European wheat belts was also tempering supply concerns as traders shift their focus to the spring growing period in the Northern Hemisphere.
But showers in the U.S. Plains were expected to miss some of the driest areas, meteorologists said.
— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton in Beijing.
