Wheat jumps on Black Sea disruptions, corn eases

According to Business Recorder, Chicago wheat gained close to 1 per cent on Monday, bouncing back from a multi-week low. Prices were supported by slow progress in restoring shipments through the Black Sea, disrupted by Russia-Ukraine fighting. A Singapore-based wheat trader said hopes of exports resuming had faded, as grain vessels still could not leave, and the most-active contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was at $6.89 a bushel by 0118 GMT.

Corn declined 0.2 per cent to $4.97-1/4 a bushel, weighed on by heavy American inventories, whereas soybeans rose 0.2 per cent to $12.80-1/4. Corn was hovering near its weakest level since mid-August, while soybeans stood close to the five-week low set last week. Both crops are expected to face resistance from the harvest currently under way in the United States.

Putin turned down truce proposals covering Black Sea attacks on Thursday. Sovecon lowered its Russian grain export outlook for 2026/27 to 44.7 million metric tons, from 49.4 million earlier, and expects Azov and Black Sea ports to stay closed through 2027. Elsewhere, StoneX now expects a US corn yield of 182.1 bushels an acre, versus 182.9 previously, while its soybean yield forecast rose to 54.1 bushels from 53.0. Traders are awaiting USDA crop and WASDE reports, and USDA data showed corn held by farmers and handlers on September 1 was 35 per cent above a year earlier.