By P.J. Huffstutter
CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) – Chicago Board of Trade grain futures reversed course on Thursday, following a retreat in crude oil prices, amid a flurry of technical trading and forecasts of improving weather across the central U.S., market analysts said.
The CBOT’s most-active wheat contract was down 2.41% at $6.37-1/4 a bushel as of 10:56 a.m. CDT (1556 GMT), after hitting its highest price since June 2024 the previous session.
Pressure from the wheat market spilled over to corn futures, where the most-active contract dipped 0.94% to $4.73-1/4 a bushel, after rallying to a near one-year high on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, trading in soybean futures was choppy, with many contracts trading either side of unchanged early in the session.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 0.1% at $11.95-3/4 a bushel after hitting its highest point in more than six weeks.
Global oil prices jumped to a four-year high of more than $126 a barrel on Thursday on concerns that the Iran war could worsen and lead to protracted Gulf supply disruption that could hurt global economic growth, but later retreated. [O/R]
The strength of oil prices, which have risen on supply disruption linked to the Iran war, has buoyed the soy complex and corn futures, as soybeans and corn are feedstocks for biofuel.
Early planting of U.S. soybeans and corn has progressed well, and forecasts for drier weather for the U.S. Corn Belt through this weekend eased some market concerns that a spate of storms in the Midwest could delay seeding in some areas, market analysts said.
“To see some level of consolidation is not surprising,” said Angie Setzer, partner at advisory firm Consus Ag Consulting. “Cooler heads are prevailing with the weather, too.”
Export demand also remained relatively steady. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported net export sales of old-crop U.S. wheat in the week ended April 23 at 226,100 metric tons and new-crop sales of 156,700 tons, both in line with trade expectations.
The USDA also reported net export sales of old-crop U.S. corn in the week ended April 23 at 1,597,800 tons, in line with expectations for 1,000,000 to 1,900,000 tons.
And USDA reported net export sales of old-crop U.S. soybeans in the week ended April 23 at 258,100 metric tons, toward the low end of trade expectations for 200,000 to 600,000 tons.
Commodity funds were net sellers of corn, wheat and soymeal, traders said on Wednesday.
(Additional reporting by Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson in Beijing and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Barbara Lewis and Alexander Smith)
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