Markets

Chicago futures flat to delay planting

SINGAPORE : U.S. corn, wheat and soybeans futures were flat to higher on Thursday as lingering concerns over planting

Published June 2, 2011 Updated June 2, 2011 01:11pm

2 min

By Muhammad Iqbal

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"The lagged pace of U.S. spring fieldwork, especially in the eastern Corn Belt, coupled with implications on yields and any switching of acres, is supportive," Barclays Capital said in a report.

Chicago Board of Trade July corn was 0.03 percent at $7.58 a bushel by 1202 GMT, rallying from an early low of $7.54.

The U.S. Agriculture Department estimates 86 percent of the U.S. corn crop was planted as of Sunday, below the five-year average of 95 percent. The U.S.D.A. added that 66 percent of the crop had emerged, down from 77 percent on average.

"Dwindling supplies of old crop corn and lower than expected new crop plantings will continue to support CBOT corn prices this week," Rabobank said in a report.

July wheat meanwhile climbed 1.17 percent to 7.68 a bushel and soybeans for July delivery were up 0.38 percent to $13.91 a bushel.

Wheat fell hard on Wednesday due to Russia's aggressive moves to sell after its weekend announcement that last August's grain export ban would be lifted from July 1.

Russia was the world's third-largest wheat exporter before it halted exports after a failed harvest last year.

However, the wheat market is still vulnerable to bad weather across key producing regions of the world, although there are some forecasts calling for rains in drought-hit parts of Europe.

"In our view, the availability of wheat exports from Russia will be a temporary factor as poor weather continues to plague the U.S., the EU and Canada," Rabobank added.

Benchmark European wheat prices were firm as continuing dry-weather threatened the forthcoming harvest and while the market awaited more details of potential exports from Black Sea countries including Russia.

"We're trying to get more precise information about how Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan are going to export what kind of size, will they be aggressive with the price," said a broker based in France.

November milling wheat on the Euronext exchange in Paris was up 1.75 euros or 0.74 percent at 238.00 euros ($341.8) a tonne, after shedding 4.9 percent to 238.75 euros on Monday in response to Russia saying it would resume exports.

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