Wheat jumps

US wheat posted a 4-1/2 month peak on Wednesday, a second straight daily advance, as a cold snap hit Europe threatening its winter wheat crop and Russia looked likely to curb exports. Corn and soyabeans also rose for the second straight session, buoyed along with wheat by a weak dollar, stronger-than-expected economic data from China and Germany and by optimism that Greece's debt crisis will be resolved.
Corn rose to a three-week top and soya climbed more than 1 percent amid firm US cash soya markets and on news China, the world's largest soya importer, bought a couple cargoes of US soyabeans. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported a sale of 120,000 tonnes of US soyabeans to China for this marketing year and also reported a sale of 120,000 tonnes of US soft red winter wheat to an unknown destination, also for delivery this year.
CBOT March wheat was up 8-1/4 cents per bushel at $6.74-1/4, March corn was up 3 at $6.42 and March soyabeans were up 16-1/4 at $12.15-1/4. Traders and analysts agreed that the wheat markets at the Chicago Board of Trade and at Paris Euronext futures were the market leaders for the second day this week.
European benchmark milling wheat futures touched a seven-month high on the weather worries. Paris March wheat was nearly 1 percent higher at 217.00 euros a tonne, or up 1.50 euros, after hitting 221.50 euros a tonne earlier in the session, a price last seen in June 2011.
A fierce cold snap engulfed Russia, Ukraine and western European grain producers including France, Germany and Poland and there were fears deep frost could damage harvests. "A sharp freeze across Europe and the Ukraine, further talk of large damage to Ukraine winter wheat yields, lack of snow coverage, the question mark over Russian exports and logistics all continue to dominate market views across Europe and the Black Sea," said Jaime-Nolan Miralles of INTL FC Stone.
Bitter cold this week probably harmed up to 15 percent of Russia's Black Sea wheat crop and 20 percent of the winter barley, said Don Keeney, meteorologist for MDA EarthSat Weather. "There is a snowcover in most of the region but it is too thin in south-east Ukraine and south-west Russia. There should be at least 10 centimeters of snow and it isn't that deep in those areas," Keeney said. Keeney said a bigger problem for the winter crops in the Black Sea was the dry condition when the crops were planted in the fall. "Winterkill is a problem but a bigger problem is that 30 to 40 percent of the crops didn't germinate," Keeney said.