Chicago | Reuters — Chicago wheat and corn futures posted weekly gains for the first time in five weeks, ending stronger on Friday on high demand for U.S. corn exports and market jitters over the extension of a wartime Black Sea grain deal.
Chicago Board of Trade May soft red winter wheat settled up 11-1/2 cents at $7.10-1/2 per bushel, with the most-active contact marking weekly gains for the first time in five weeks (all figures US$).
CBOT May corn also settled up 1-1/2 cent at $6.34-1/4 per bushel, with the most-active contract making weekly gains for the first time in the same period.
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The most-active soybean contract settled 15 cents lower at $14.76-1/2 per bushel and closed weaker for a fifth consecutive week.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) made its fourth consecutive daily announcement of old-crop U.S. corn sales to China, totalling 2.1 million tonnes over four days.
“I think we’ll continue to see corn exports ramp up and I think that’ll help support the corn prices,” said Jack Scoville, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
A weaker dollar lent some support to U.S. commodities as risk appetite returned following steps this week to shore up the banking sector.
Grain markets were also monitoring talks to maintain a shipping channel from Ukraine, with a Russian push for a reduced duration creating doubt ahead of a Saturday deadline.
Ukraine insists on a 120-day extension of an agreement allowing the safe export of grain from Black Sea ports, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, after the Kremlin earlier repeated its position of a 60-day extension.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) later on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of war crimes.
In other news, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) delayed the release of weekly Commitments of Traders data following a cyberattack last month at ION Trading.
— Reporting for Reuters by Cassandra Garrison in Chicago, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
