Chicago | Reuters – Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures fell to a one-month low on Tuesday under pressure from expectations for rain in dry global growing areas and for continued exports of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea region.
Soybean and corn futures advanced.
Weather forecasts for showers in the coming days in drought-affected wheat zones in Argentina and the U.S. Plains tempered supply concerns, traders said. In the U.S. Midwest, rains will expand across soft red winter wheat fields over the next two days, “significantly improving moisture for establishment” of the crop, Commodity Weather Group said.
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Farmers had planted 79 per cent of the U.S. winter wheat crop as of Sunday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday. In Kansas, the top U.S. winter wheat producer, subsoil moisture was short to very short in 91 per cent of the state.
Rains may also deliver a small benefit to the Mississippi River, where low water levels are expected to continue hampering grain shipments, analysts said. Commodity Weather Group projected a “minor uptick” in the flow on the lower Mississippi River.
The most-active CBOT wheat contract Wv1 ended down 4 cents at $8.34-3/4 a bushel. It earlier fell to its lowest since Sept. 20, below a previous one-month trough touched last week.
CBOT soybeans Sv1, meanwhile, rose 10 cents to close at $13.82 a bushel and corn Cv1 edged up 4-3/4 cents to $6.86-1/4 a bushel.
Sluggish U.S. wheat exports and competitive prices for Russian and Ukrainian supplies have loomed over wheat markets, offsetting worries that a United Nations-backed shipping corridor from Ukraine may not be extended beyond November.
Ukraine’s exports of agricultural products could rise more than 8 per cent in October from last month, the Ukrainian Agrarian Council said on Tuesday.
Juan Luciano, chief executive of grain trader Archer-Daniels-Midland ADM.N, said on an earnings call that he sees “nothing significant that could derail” an extension of the Black Sea grain export corridor for Ukrainian grain next month.
– Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
