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U.S. wheat futures jumped Monday following Russian air attacks on Ukraine ports during the weekend that reignited worries over exportable grain supplies from the Black Sea region.
Previous occasional Russian attacks against Ukraine ports have mostly failed to disrupt large Ukrainian exports through the Black Sea corridor, prompting limited reactions from grain markets, but now analysts fear that Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries and Vladimir Putin’s re-election as Russia’s president may ratchet up tensions to new heights.
“Stabilizing Russian wheat export prices and a new growing season is spurring short covering,” AgResource writes, adding that wheat appears to have the world’s best fundamentals heading into a new growing cycle.
CBOT wheat (W_1:COM) for May delivery settled +2.7% to $5.42 3/4 per bushel, but May soybeans (S_1:COM) finished -0.9% to $11.87 3/4 per bushel and May corn (C_1:COM) closed -0.1% to $4.36 1/2 per bushel.
ETFs: (NYSEARCA:WEAT), (SOYB), (CORN), (NYSEARCA:DBA), (MOO)
Soybeans pulled back from a six-week high set last week as the harvest remained strong in top producer Brazil.
Ag consultancy AgRural said Brazil’s soybean harvest reached 63% of the planted area as of last Thursday, up eight percentage points from the prior week and just above the year-ago 62% pace.