Chicago grains track crude oil lower on hopes of Mideast truce

PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago grains slid on Wednesday, giving up recent gains, as a decline in crude oil prices on hopes of a US-Iran deal to halt the war pressured grains and oilseed futures.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) slipped 0.5percent at USD12.06 a bushel, as of 0955 GMT, having fallen around 1percent in the previous session.

Corn lost 1.9 percent to USD4.71 a bushel and wheat gave up 2.2percent to USD6.14-1/4 a bushel. On Monday, corn hit its highest since April 2025 and soybeans climbed to their highest in nearly eight weeks. Wheat jumped to a two-year peak last week.

A Pakistani source involved in the peace efforts told Reuters that the United States and Iran are closing in on a one-page memorandum to end the war in the Gulf, confirming information first released by US media Axios.

The news prompted oil prices to extend their declines on Wednesday, slumping to two-week lows. Conflict-driven fluctuations in oil prices have influenced grain markets, as corn and soybean oil are widely used for biofuel production.

Wheat often follows through and the fall was amplified by forecasts of rain in some dry US wheat zones this week, although traders said precipitation may come too late in some areas.

The US Department of Agriculture’s weekly report said 31percent of the nation’s winter wheat crop was in good to excellent condition, up from 30percent last week but still the lowest for this time of the year since 2023.

A group of Oklahoma crop experts on Tuesday projected Oklahoma’s 2026 winter wheat harvest at 47.799 million bushels, with an average yield of 23.11 bushels per acre, following an annual tour of the state, said Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

The estimates were sharply lower than the 10-year yield average of 94.499 million bushels in Oklahoma, among the top US wheat-producing states.