PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat futures rose for a fourth straight session on Tuesday as attacks on vessels in the Black Sea reinforced concerns about disruption to grain exports due to Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Corn and soybeans edged up, with an easing in the dollar index from an 18-month high and rain-slowed US harvest progress helping prices recover from one-month lows hit last week.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.9 percent at USD6.98-1/4 a bushel.
The benchmark was continuing to recover from a six-week low struck last Thursday, though it faced resistance at the psychological USD7 threshold.
Two merchant ships, including one carrying grain, were hit on Tuesday in a drone strike in the Black Sea off Bulgaria, the country’s Prime Minister Rumen Radev said.
That came after another vessel was struck on Monday outside Romania’s territorial waters, in an attack blamed by Ukraine on Russian drones.
After attacks in recent months choked Russian and Ukrainian shipments from Black Sea ports, the latest incidents could hamper Ukrainian exports via Danube river ports and potentially create risks for shipments from EU members Romania and Bulgaria, according to traders.
“The Black Sea situation is worsening further and that’s been supporting wheat prices,” a European trader said.
The wheat market also drew support on Monday from a major Saudi purchase which suggested buyers were returning after last month’s pullback in prices.
A pause in the dollar’s rally also helped underpin Chicago grains, which become dearer for overseas buyers when the US currency rises.
CBOT corn added 0.7 percent to USD5.00-1/2 a bushel and soybeans rose 0.5 percent to USD12.86-3/4 a bushel.
Traders were weighing slower-than-anticipated US harvest progress against forecasts of dry weather that could help field work accelerate this week.
US farmers have harvested 23 percent of their corn and 25 percent of their soybeans, less than expected by analysts and below the average pace over the past five years, US Department of Agriculture data showed on Monday.
While rain has significantly slowed progress in parts of the western Midwest, particularly in Iowa, weather forecasts call for dry weather for much of this week across the central US.
Traders are also awaiting the end of a week-long holiday break in China to see if buyers there make further purchases of US soybeans. Grain markets are turning their attention too towards Friday’s monthly supply-and-demand outlook from the USDA, which will include updated US corn and soybean harvest projections.