Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures rose 2.2 per cent on Thursday, supported by rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia and expectations that war between the two export countries could improve demand for U.S. supplies, traders said.
Soybeans and corn futures closed in positive territory after trading both sides of unchanged, with concerns about harvest shortfalls in Brazil and Argentina continuing to underpin the market.
Chicago Board of Trade March soft red winter wheat settled up 17-1/2 cents, at $7.98 a bushel (all figures US$).
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“Wheat leads the ag sector higher this morning as traders worry that war may be imminent in Ukraine, which may shut down trade from the region,” Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for brokerage StoneX, said in a note to clients.
“Prices are going higher on the fear that the world may need much more of our wheat if war breaks out in Ukraine.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday there was now every indication Russia was planning to invade Ukraine in the next few days and was preparing a pretext to justify it, after Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow rebels traded fire in eastern Ukraine.
CBOT March soybean futures settled up 4-1/2 cents at $15.92 a bushel. The contract ended well off its session highs after struggling to hold support above the psychological $16 threshold, which it had breached last week en route to a nine-month high before retreating.
Strong export demand lent support to soy futures.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday morning that export sales of soybeans totalled 2.888 million tonnes in the week ended Feb. 10, up from 2.446 million a week earlier.
Separately, USDA also said private exporters reported the sale of 120,000 tones of soybeans to unknown destinations, the third day in a row a deal for U.S. soy was announced.
CBOT March corn ended up three cents, at $6.50 a bushel.
— Mark Weinraub is a Reuters commodities correspondent in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai.
