CANBERRA, March 27 (Reuters) – Chicago wheat futures retreated on Wednesday towards 3-1/2-year lows as traders dismissed concerns that exports from top supplier Russia would be disrupted.
Soybean and corn futures also fell amid plentiful supply as the markets looked ahead to data on U.S. planting and grain stocks due on Thursday that could move prices.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.6% at $5.40-1/2 a bushel by 0014 GMT, while CBOT soybeans fell 0.4% to $11.94-1/4 a bushel and corn slipped 0.6% to $4.29-3/4 a bushel.
* All three contracts are near their lowest levels since 2020 and speculators have bet heavily on further declines.
* Wheat advanced to $5.67 on Monday, the highest levels since March 4, as a dispute between Russian authorities and a leading export company held up shipments.
* Also, creating supply concerns were Russian attacks on infrastructure in Ukraine, another large grain exporter, and accusations that Kyiv helped arrange a terror attack in Moscow.
* But those worries have faded in the face of huge volumes of wheat still emerging from Russia, which expects a third consecutive large harvest this year and could set a new March shipping record of 5 million tons this month.
* CBOT wheat fell earlier this month to $5.23-1/2, the lowest level since August 2020.
* Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean and wheat futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said.
* Elsewhere, soft wheat exports from Europe were slightly down on last year’s pace and soybean imports into Europe were roughly unchanged from last year, EU data showed.
* Ahead of a U.S. planting report on Thursday, grain market analysts predict U.S. corn and wheat plantings will fall in favour of soybeans.
* In Brazil, consultancy hEDGEpoint lowered its forecast for the nation’s 2023-24 corn crop to 119.1 million metric tons from 121.5 million.
* Brazil’s soybean exports are expected to reach 13.49 million metric tons this month, grain exporters lobby group Anec said.
* South African farmers are expected to harvest 13.26 million metric tons of maize (corn) in 2024, down from 16.43 million the season before, the government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said.
MARKETS NEWS
* Wall Street turned modestly lower in late trade on Tuesday while the yen hovered near 2022 intervention levels after more official Japanese jawboning to deter shorting of the currency since last week’s monetary policy tightening.