BEIJING: Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures fell on Wednesday as market participants monitored prospects for a potential recovery in Black Sea grain exports. Corn and soybeans also dropped.
The most-traded wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 1.25percent at USD7.08-1/4 a bushel by 0230 GMT. CBOT corn dropped 0.84percent to USD5.32-1/4 a bushel, while soybeans lost 0.3percent at USD13.21-1/2 a bushel.
Renewed diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine war kept attention on the outlook for Black Sea agricultural exports. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he discussed with US President Donald Trump efforts to end the 4-year-old war with Russia, including a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets.
Zelenskiy told reporters at the UN headquarters that Kyiv was ready for any format of an energy ceasefire with Moscow, but there had been no discussion of Ukraine unilaterally halting its attacks on Russian oil refineries. Trump told reporters after the 40-minute meeting with Zelenskiy that his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin was to “settle the war.”
Still, continued attacks on ports and vessels tempered expectations of a recovery in grain shipments. “We continue to see little prospect of a near-term normalisation in Black Sea export volumes and believe expectations of a durable resolution are premature,” BMI, a Fitch Solutions consulting firm, said in a note.
Tit-for-tat attacks by Russia and Ukraine on each other’s ports and shipping have brought the countries’ Black Sea exports to a virtual halt, prompting buyers to look for alternatives.
For soybeans, traders are waiting to see whether a US-China summit this week boosts Chinese demand for American farm goods, and if Beijing agrees to purchases and to remove a 10percent import duty on US soybeans.
China’s state stockpiler Sinograin on Tuesday announced its second large-scale auction of imported soybeans in September, over half a million metric tons, just days ahead of the meeting before US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this week.
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