CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures fell on Tuesday as top exporter Russia began to ship grain from its new crop, underscoring expectations of plentiful supply in the months ahead.
Corn and soybean futures rose slightly, clawing back some of the previous session’s losses amid a mixed weather outlook in the United States. The most active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.4% at $5.40 a bushel at 0253 GMT, hovering close to the five-year low of $5.06-1/4 hit in May.
The first wheat from Russia’s new crop has arrived, and although Russian export prices have risen in recent weeks, the overall harvest is expected to be large, at around 83-84 million metric tons. In the United States, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the winter wheat harvest was 73% complete as of Sunday, and 52% of spring wheat was in good-to-excellent condition.
Higher corn prices due to emerging weather risks have supported wheat, said Commonwealth Bank analyst Dennis Voznesenski, but “it doesn’t typically make sense for prices to move higher during harvest.”