Wheat Futures Up Following Missile Strike on Ukrainian Ship — Daily Grain Highlights

By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for December delivery rose 0.6% to $5.93 1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday, with traders adding risk premium to wheat following a fresh missile strike by Russia hitting a Ukrainian vessel.

--Corn for December delivery rose 0.4% to $4.26 1/2 a bushel.

--Soybeans for November delivery fell 0.3% to $10.34 3/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Show of Force: Wheat and corn trading on the CBOT got support from reports of a Ukrainian grain-shipping vessel hit by a Russian missile strike. The vessel was carrying corn, said Arlan Suderman of StoneX, giving both grains a boost as there was another wheat-carrying vessel destroyed by a Russian missile in recent days. Tough weather in both countries was also supportive for prices for both grains, Suderman said.

Relief Coming: Soybeans were under pressure on projections for more rainfall in Brazil--providing relief to parched areas. This is as farmers in the U.S. are in the process of harvesting, bringing a rush of new soybeans into the world export market. Partially offsetting this was strength in oil prices, said Charlie Sernatinger of Marex. "It is tough to break beans hard when petroleum keeps rallying… but it is hard to rally the market when it looks like we will be awash in cash soybean offerings from the farmer this week," he said in a note.

INSIGHT

Covering Their Bases: Friday's Commitments of Traders report showed a surge in covering short positions, particularly for corn and soybeans. For the week ended Oct. 1, fund traders cut exposure in corn shorts by nearly 60,000 contracts, and for soybeans by nearly 24,000 contracts. Wheat shorts altogether dropped by roughly 10,000 contracts. Traders are expected to keep balancing their portfolios ahead of this upcoming Friday's WASDE report from the USDA.

Inspection Surge: Export inspections of U.S. soybean exports surged for the week ended Oct. 3 - more than doubling last week's total. The USDA said this week that soybean export inspections totaled 1.43 million metric tons - more than double the 682,852 tons reported last week. But the total is only slightly higher than the 1.4 million tons reported at this time last year. Corn and wheat inspections fell below totals from the previous week, but were higher than reported at this time last year. Korea was the leading destination for U.S. wheat for the week, while Mexico was the top destination for corn and China led the way for soybeans.

AHEAD

--The EIA will release its weekly ethanol production and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

--The USDA will release its weekly export sales report at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday.

--The USDA will release its monthly World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates report at noon ET Friday.

--The CFTC will release its weekly Commitment of Traders report at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday.

Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 07, 2024 15:23 ET (19:23 GMT)

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