Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures rose on Wednesday, their fifth day of gains in the last six sessions, on signs of strength in the cash market, traders said.
Soybean futures ended lower as the market faced pressure from weakness in the crude oil market, as well as a fast pace of planting in the U.S. Midwest.
The wheat market also weakened after trading in positive territory, with good weather for crop development in the eastern U.S. Midwest pressuring the benchmark Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat contracts.
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Adverse growing conditions in the southern U.S. Plains limited the declines in K.C. hard red winter wheat futures. Wet soils in the northern U.S. Plains that slowed farmers in their seeding progress supported MGEX spring wheat futures.
The cash market strength in corn stemmed from slow country movement of the grain in recent months. Farmers were keeping a tight hand on the supplies they had leftover from the 2022 harvest.
“We are kind of responding to the need to push bushels forward a bit,” said Matt Wiegand, commodity broker for FuturesOne. “The upfront demand is hanging in there.”
CBOT July corn futures settled up 9-1/4 cents at $5.94 a bushel (all figures US$).
CBOT July soybean futures dropped 10-1/4 cents to $14.04 a bushel and CBOT July soft red winter wheat was down 2-1/4 cents at $6.41-1/4 a bushel.
Wheat futures received support from concerns that the deal allowing for Ukraine grain exports from certain Black Sea ports will not be renewed. The Kremlin said that Russia’s stance on the grain deal — that its own interests must be taken into account in talks aimed at extending it beyond May 18 — was understood by all relevant parties.
Four-way talks on the deal, between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations, are due to take place in Istanbul this week.
— Reporting for Reuters by Mark Weinraub in Chicago; additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.
