Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn and wheat futures dipped on Friday, with concerns about a weakening global economy deterring traders from extending gains made earlier this week.
“Fund managers continue to interpret their supply and demand fundamentals through a lens coloured by recession fears,” Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at brokerage StoneX, said in a note.
Sharp declines in equity markets and the dollar’s strength added to the risk-off mood, traders said.
“The market continues to lick its wounds following hawkish central bank messages across the U.S., UK, and euro area,” Saxo Bank said in a note.
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The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank this week revived investors’ recession worries by signalling more interest rate rises to contain inflation.
But soybean futures edged higher, with strength in soymeal and a recent spate of activity on the export market underpinning prices.
The most-active CBOT soft red winter wheat contract posted a weekly gain of 2.6 per cent, snapping a streak of five straight weeks of downturns. The gain was the biggest for wheat since the week ended Sept. 29.
Corn futures rose 1.4 per cent this week and soybean futures dipped 0.3 per cent.
CBOT March soft red winter wheat settled down 3-3/4 cents at $7.53-1/2 a bushel while CBOT March corn was 1/2 cent lower at $6.53 a bushel (all figures US$).
CBOT January soybeans were up 6-1/2 cents at $14.80 a bushel.
Continuing flows of competitively priced Russian and Ukrainian wheat were curbing wheat prices, although traders were wary of potential disruption due to winter weather and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Russia fired more than 70 missiles during Friday’s morning rush hour in one of its biggest attacks on Ukraine since the start of the war, forcing emergency power cuts nationwide, Ukrainian officials said.
— Reporting for Reuters by Mark Weinraub in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
