Chicago | Reuters—U.S. wheat futures rallied to their highest point in more than two months before the session closed on Monday as crop weather concerns in the Northern Hemisphere supported prices and triggered technical buying and short covering, which accelerated the climb, analysts said.
Corn and soybeans followed wheat higher on concerns over Argentine crops and attacks on a Ukrainian grains port.
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) July wheat WN24 gained 20-3/4 cents to settle at $5.87-1/2 a bushel after earlier hitting its highest point since Feb. 14.
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“There’s growing concern about dryness in Russia,” said Susan Stroud, founding analyst at NoBullAg.com. A lack of rain in the hard red wheat areas of Colorado and Kansas also supported the market, with 50 million bushels of grain at risk in those areas, she said.
Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop progress and conditions report released after markets closed on Monday showed 50 per cent of winter wheat in good to excellent condition, down from last week’s report, which rated 55 per cent of the crop good to excellent.
Technical buying and short covering helped extend the weather-fueled trend, said analysts.
“Wheat has been bumping up against 50-day moving averages for a long time,” said Dan Anderson of Marex Capital. “I think we finally broke through that.”
Analysts said Russian attacks on the port of Pivdennyi in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region on Friday caused further stress to the market.
The missile strikes destroyed grain storage facilities and foodstuffs they contained, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials said.
Stroud noted that U.S. corn was becoming more competitive after news of renewed attacks and ongoing problems with corn stunt disease in Argentina, combined with recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data showing increased demand for both ethanol and feed.
CBOT July corn CN24 rose 6-3/4 cents to $4.49-3/4 a bushel, while July soybeans SN24 were up 10-3/4 cents at $11.76-1/2 a bushel.
—Additional reporting for Reuters by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore
