PARIS/CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures climbed 1.5% on Thursday, snapping a three-day fall as drier weather forecasts for southern Russia and a latest Russian strike on Ukraine’s port city of Odesa shifted attention back to Black Sea supply risks.
Soybean and corn futures also rose, supported by firm crude oil and a softer dollar as traders assessed projected showers that may slow planting in the US Midwest.
The most active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 1.5% at $6.08-1/2 a bushel by 1112 GMT.
The contract had jumped to a four-month high last week, after parched conditions in Russian and US wheat belts prompted short-covering by investors, before retreating earlier this week as rain relief was forecast in those zones.
“In wheat, changes in rainfall forecasting models are driving the market, with two areas in particular under scrutiny: southern Russia and the Plains of the American wheat belt,” Agritel analysts said in a note.
Some latest weather charts were showing much of southern Russia would receive little rain in the coming two weeks, while parts of the top US wheat-growing state Kansas were also predicted to stay dry, traders said.
A Russian ballistic missile struck a postal depot in the Ukrainian port of Odesa late on Wednesday, the third missile attack on the city in as many days, Ukrainian officials said.
However, market participants said the reaction to weather and war risks in the Black Sea region was being tempered by favourable early development of Russian crops and the large export trade that was continuing.
Russia, the world’s top wheat exporter, continues to ship record quantities after two consecutive large harvests.
CBOT soybeans rose 0.9% to $11.81-1/4 a bushel and corn added 1% to $4.55-1/4 a bushel.
The US spring planting season is humming along at an above-average clip, though recent and upcoming rains should slow progress during what is typically peak week for corn planting.
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