SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat ticked higher on Wednesday, bouncing off the two-week low hit earlier in the session, with lower output in Russia providing a floor under the market.
Soybean gained ground as crop losses due to flooding in top exporter Brazil underpinned the market, while corn firmed.
“Overseas, markets continue to trade Russian crop production figures, while other key growing regions do remarkably well,” said Commonwealth Bank analyst Dennis Voznesenski.
“Market estimates for Russian wheat production have stabilised between 82-85 mmt following recent frost and dryness.
In Ukraine, production seems largely unscathed.“ The most active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.5% at $6.61-1/4 a bushel, as of 0316 GMT.
It hit $6.56-3/4, its lowest since May 20, earlier in the session. Soybeans rose 0.8% to $11.88-3/4 a bushel and corn added 0.1% to $4.42-3/4 a bushel.
Forecasts of lower wheat output in Russia, the world’s biggest exporter, drove wheat prices to a 10-month high last week, but the market has given up some of those gains in recent sessions.
For soybeans, crop losses related to recent floods in Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul were estimated at 2.71 million metric tons, crop agency Emater said on Tuesday.
Brazil, the world’s No. 1 soybean exporter, suffered heavy crop losses from floods ahead of the harvest.
Chicago wheat rises on Russian crop concern
The country’s second corn crop is expected to hit 93.5 million metric tons in the 2023/24 season, consultancy StoneX said on Monday, lowering its forecast from the 97.3 million tons it had estimated in May.
In Argentina, soybean sales nearly doubled in May from the previous month, the government said on Tuesday, due to drier conditions and improving international prices.
A drought and intense heat in top US corn importer Mexico could damage the country’s crop and stimulate demand for US corn, traders said.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT wheat, soybean, soymeal, soyoil and corn futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said.
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