PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat rose for a third straight session on Thursday as dry weather in leading exporting countries kept investors nervous about supply snags for the coming season.
Soybean prices edged higher in a slight bounce from a two-month low as traders weighed ongoing trade discussions between the United States and China, the world’s top soybean importer.
Corn was also firm, consolidating after a six-week low in the previous session, with uncertainty over the impact of drought on Brazil’s second corn crop.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade had risen 2.5 percent to $5.32-3/4 a bushel by 1240 GMT, adding to a 2 percent gain on Wednesday.
Weather risks have stirred up wheat markets in recent weeks, with concern about dry weather in parts of Russia, Australia and the European Union adding to worries about drought-reduced yields in the US winter wheat harvest now under way.
“As you move around the world there’s no major region that’s really doing extremely well right now. You can find some trouble spot just about anywhere you look,” Daniel Redo, head of agriculture research at Thomson Reuters, said of wheat.
A particular focus was southern Russia, a major export zone in the world’s biggest wheat exporting country, where little rain was forecast for the coming days.
“It is pretty dry in Australia, although yields will depend on how June rainfall goes. Dryness in Russia is a real concern as the Black Sea region has emerged as such a big exporter, and buyers around the world are dependent on wheat from Russia and Ukraine,” said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.
CBOT soybeans edged up by 0.1 percent to $9.95 a bushel after touching a two-month low of $9.92-1/4. Corn added 0.6 percent to $3.80-1/2 a bushel, recovering from Wednesday’s low of $3.80, a level not seen since April 20.
Uncertainty about US trade relationships with China and other countries hung over the grain market.
Traders awaited news of an offer by China to import an extra $70 billion of American goods over a year, which on Tuesday had raised hopes of progress in trade negotiations.
Brazilian soybean producers have so far sold 73 percent of the record 2017-18 crop, far ahead of sales for the same period last season because a weaker local currency boosts revenues denominated in reals and stimulates trading activity.
Source: Brecorder
