SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat rose for a fourth consecutive session on Thursday to its highest level in one week, as concerns over dry weather conditions in key producing countries underpinned prices. Soybeans and corn edged higher on positioning ahead of a key US supply-demand report due on Friday.
“Wheat production prospects are tightening and farmers are not selling,” said one trader in Singapore. “We see an upside in prices.” The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 1.6% at $6.08-3/4 a bushel, as of 0546 GMT, having hit its highest since Oct. 3 earlier in the session. Soybeans added 0.3% to $10.23 a bushel and corn gained 0.7% at $4.23-3/4 a bushel.
Harsh weather is reducing wheat production in major global exporters, cutting inventories that have already been projected to hit nine-year lows. The Rosario grains exchange on Wednesday trimmed its estimate for the 2024/25 wheat harvest to 19.5 million metric tons, down from a previous estimate of 20.5 million tons.
Russia has sown 13 million hectares with winter grain so far this year and is aiming to sow 20 million hectares in total, the same area as last year, Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut said on Wednesday. The Sovecon consultancy warned on Sept. 25 that wheat sowing rates in Russia have fallen to an 11-year low, clouding the outlook for the 2025 grain harvest in the world’s top wheat exporter.
Traders were shifting attention toward monthly US government crop forecasts on Friday, including updated estimates of the US corn and soybean harvests after projections of record yields for both crops last month.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean and soymeal futures contracts on Wednesday and net buyers of CBOT wheat futures, traders said. They were net even in soyoil futures, traders said.
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