CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures steadied on Wednesday following four consecutive daily losses, as concerns over supply from Russia partially offset a stronger dollar and weak outlook for US exports.
Soybean futures fell and hovered near four-year lows amid good crop conditions in Brazil and lacklustre Chinese demand for US beans.
Corn was little changed, with prices consolidating after a rally to 5-1/2-month highs last week.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was flat at $5.45 a bushel by 0525 GMT.
Consultants Sovecon cut their forecast for 2025 wheat production in Russia - the world’s biggest wheat exporter - by 3 million metric tons to 78.7 million tons, citing that crop conditions were the worst in decades.
Russia flooded the market through much of 2024, holding CBOT wheat around four-year lows, but Russian export prices are now rising and shipments are expected to slow sharply.
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However, ongoing harvests in Argentina and Australia have exceeded expectations, Ukrainian crops are in better shape than feared, according to consultants APK-Inform, and good rainfall in US wheat-growing areas has raised the production outlook amid concerns over US export prospects.
In addition, the dollar is near November’s two-year high against a basket of major peers, making US exports costlier for buyers with other currencies.
Russia has produced exceptionally large crops in the last couple of years and the Sovecon forecast would - if correct - simply return production to typical pre-2022 levels, said Andrew Whitelaw at consultants Episode 3 in Canberra.
“We expect wheat pricing to trend slightly lower to flat over the rest of this week,” he said. In other crops, CBOT corn was up 0.1% at $4.43-3/4 a bushel and soybeans fell 0.6% to $9.71 a bushel.
In a potential boost for corn demand, an upcoming US government funding bill is expected to include a plan allowing year-round sales of gasoline with a higher ethanol blend, sources said.
Currently, sales of E15 are effectively blocked from June to September.
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