CANBERRA/PARIS: Chicago wheat futures edged lower on Tuesday but prices held close to Friday’s four-month peak as cold temperatures posed a threat to crops in the Black Sea and U.S. Plains regions.
Soybean futures remained largely unchanged, while corn prices saw a modest uptick.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.4% at $5.97-1/2 a bushel at 1140 GMT after a burst of short covering pushed the contract to $6.03 on Friday, its highest since October 11.
CBOT soybeans slipped 0.1% to $10.35 bushel, having drifted from a 6-1/2-month high of $10.80 earlier this month.
Corn rose 0.35% to $4.98 a bushel, not far from the $5 level hit on Friday, a level hit for the first time since October 2023.
Corn and wheat supply is expected to tighten in the coming months but soybeans are projected to be more plentiful.
Additional support for grain prices came from relief that U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet unleashed tariffs on agricultural trade and a weakening U.S. dollar, though that weakening halted on Tuesday.
Wheat eases from 4-month highs on US dollar strength
A lower dollar makes U.S. farm exports more competitive.
The rallies have got ahead of themselves, said Ole Houe, director of advisory services at IKON Commodities in Sydney.
“The physical market overseas is not following this rally. I suspect prices will fall over the next couple of days,” Houe said, adding that there was enough fundamental support that not all recent gains would be lost.
Wheat export prices in Russia, the world’s biggest supplier, logged a fourth consecutive weekly gain last week amid declining shipments as an export quota entered into force, analysts said.
Cold temperatures in Russian and U.S. wheat areas could damage dormant crops that lack insulating snow cover, analysts say, with consultancy IKAR trimming its forecast for Russia’s 2025 grain crop last week.
In Europe, France’s wheat crop conditions deteriorated sharply due to excessive winter rainfall, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed.
In other crops, weekend rains in Argentina helped to prevent further losses to the country’s drought-hit 2024/25 soybean and corn crops, the Rosario grains exchange said.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s massive 2024/25 soybean harvest was 23% complete as of last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said, lagging last year’s pace.
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