Wheat eases from 4-month highs on US dollar strength

CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures fell on Tuesday as the US dollar strengthened, but prices remained near Friday’s four-month high as cold weather threatened crops in the Black Sea and US Plains regions. Corn and soy futures also slipped.

Saudi Arabia buys about 920,000 metric tons of wheat in tender

Fundamentals

• The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.8% at $5.95 a bushel at 0324 GMT after leaping to $6.03 on Friday, its highest since October 11 last year.

• CBOT corn fell 0.5% to $4.94 a bushel after rising to $5 on Friday for the first time since October 2023.

• Soybeans were down 0.7% at $10.29-1/4 bushel, having drifted from a 6-1/2-month high of $10.80 reached earlier this month.

• Driving corn and wheat prices are expectations that supply will tighten, and, in the case of wheat, a rush of short covering by speculators. Soybean supply is forecast to be more plentiful.

• Also supportive is relief that US President Donald Trump has not yet unleashed tariffs on agricultural trade and that an easing US dollar is making US farm exports more competitive, though that easing halted on Tuesday.

• Wheat export prices in Russia, the world’s biggest supplier of the grain, rose for a fourth consecutive week last week amid declining shipments as an export quota entered into force, analysts said.

• Cold temperatures in Russian and US wheat areas could damage dormant crops that lack insulating snow cover, analysts say, with consultants IKAR last week trimming their forecast for Russia’s 2025 grain crop.

• The condition of France’s wheat crop has also worsened sharply due to wet winter weather, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed.

• Saudi Arabia’s main state wheat buying agency said it had bought about 920,000 metric tons of wheat in an international tender.

• In other crops, weekend rains in Argentina helped to prevent further losses in 2024/25 soybean and corn crops that have already shrunk due to drought, the Rosario grains exchange said.

• Brazil’s massive 2024/25 soybean harvest was 23% complete as of last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said, lagging last year’s pace.