HAMBURG: Chicago wheat futures rose on Monday, supported by dryness in US growing regions and fears the ceasefire between the United States and Iran may break down.
Corn and soybeans were also supported by war concerns but saw headwinds from expectations of fast US plantings. Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat rose 1.2percent to USD6.06-3/4 a bushel at 1118 GMT after firmness last week.
Corn rose 0.06percent to USD4.48-3/4 a bushel. Soybeans were unchanged at USD11.67-1/4 a bushel. Oil prices rose after the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship attempting to run its blockade, Iran said it would retaliate.
“Wheat is higher in early trade, the war risk premium is back into the picture,” said Matt Ammermann, commodity risk manager at StoneX. “As seen last week, the focus remains on the poor US crop conditions and the Western Plains drought threatening hard red winter wheat, but latest forecasts show some hopes of rains.” Soybeans are also seeing some support from the Iran war risk, he added.
“As a key catalyst, US weather remains under close scrutiny,” Argus analysts said in a note. “The lack of precipitation across winter wheat areas has long weighed on yield potential.”
But soybean rises were limited by expectations that a rapid pace of US soybean sowings could be reported by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its US crop progress estimates due later on Monday.
“There is an expectation that with the trend by US farmers to plant soy first especially in southern states, so there than normal planting pace today,” Ammermann said.
“Corn remains mixed, it seems the market is largely ignoring crude oil right now. Warm US Midwest weather means there are expectations more rapid US corn planting pace will be seen over the coming weeks.”
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