SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat eased on Monday as ample supplies pressured prices, with the market giving up earlier gains that were triggered by worries over shipments from the Black Sea region.
Soybeans rose after dropping to their lowest in more than one month, while corn slid.
“The wheat market has been supported by escalations in the Black Sea region but it has come down now as there is no major issue with supplies,” said one grains trader in Singapore. “Prices will move higher if we actually see exports getting impacted.” The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) lost 0.1% to $5.64-1/4 a bushel, as of 0431 GMT, and corn fell 0.2% to $4.34-1/2 a bushel. Soybeans gained 0.4% at $9.87-1/2 a bushel after dropping to its lowest since Oct. 21 on Friday.
Russia last week launched a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in response to the US and the UK allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons, and warned that more could follow.
The strike prompted short covering, as it raised worries over grain supplies from the Black Sea region. The International Grains Council last week trimmed its forecast for 2024/25 global wheat production by 2 million metric tons to 796 million tons, driven partly by a diminished outlook for the European Union.
Soybeans touched a more than one-month low on Friday, pressured by favourable South American weather and China-Brazil trade deals, which could further reduce US agricultural exports to the Asian country. China granted Brazil permission to export sorghum, fresh grapes, sesame and fish products to Chinese buyers, the Latin American country’s agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.
In Argentina, 2024/25 soybean planting progressed by 16 percentage points in the past week, reaching 35.8% of the 18.6 million hectares projected for the season, according to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange. Large speculators cut their net long position in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures in the week to Nov. 19, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitments of traders report also showed that noncommercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their net short position in CBOT wheat and increased their net short position in soybeans.
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