Chicago | Reuters – Chicago wheat futures eased on Friday on profit-taking and dollar strength, according to analysts, while soybeans gained in technical rebound from three days of declines.
Corn followed wheat lower.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wv1settled down 4-3/4 cents at $5.64-3/4 per bushel, but rose about 2 per cent for the week.
Soybean futures Sv1 closed up 5-3/4 to $9.83-1/2 a bushel, moving up about 1.5 per cent for the week, while corn Cv1settled down 1-1/4 cents at $4.25-1/2 per bushel, rising about 0.40 per cent for the week.
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U.S. grains: Wheat futures rise on supply snags in top-exporter Russia
U.S. wheat futures closed higher on Thursday on concerns over the limited availability of supplies for export in Russia, analysts said.
Wheat futures WH25 jumped on Thursday, setting up actively traded nearby contracts for weekly gains of about 2 per cent on concerns about Black Sea region supplies.
Russia launched a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in response to the U.S. and the UK allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons, and warned that more could follow.
The strike gave traders an excuse to cover short positions, said Austin Schroder, a commodity analyst at Brugler Marketing and Management. But prices retreated as the dollar gained on Friday as strength in the dollar makes U.S. exports more expensive to holders of other currencies.
Soybeans experienced a technical bounce from contract lows on Thursday, Schroeder said.
But that market remains anchored by good South American crop weather and trade deals between China and Brazil which signalled a cozier relationship that could hurt U.S. exports, according to analysts.
China granted Brazil permission to export sorghum, fresh grapes, sesame and fish products to Chinese buyers, the Latin American country’s agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.
In Argentina, 2024/25 soybean planting progressed by 16 percentage points in the past week, reaching 35.8 per cent of the 18.6 million hectares projected for the season, according to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange.
– Additional reporting by Mei Mei Chu in Beijing and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris
