[ad_1]
SINGAPORE, March 24 (Reuters) – Chicago wheat futures lost more ground on Friday with the market poised for its biggest weekly drop in eight months as renewal of a Black Sea export deal eased concerns over global supply.
Soybeans slid to a four-month low and corn futures also dropped.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wv1 was down 0.5% at $6.58-1/2 a bushel, as of 0017 GMT. For the week, wheat has lost 7.3%, the biggest drop since mid-July.
* Soybeans Sv1 fell 0.3% to $14.14-3/4 a bushel, after dropping earlier in the session to their lowest since mid-November at $14.13 a bushel and corn Cv1 gave up 0.3% to $6.29-3/4 a bushel.
* The deal, allowing the safe export of grain from Ukrainian and Russian Black Sea ports, was renewed on Saturday for 60 days.
* Selling by funds added pressure on agricultural commodities.
* Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean, wheat, soymeal and soyoil futures contracts on Thursday, traders said. COMFUND/CBT
* Losses in the corn market were trimmed by strong Chinese purchases.
* China purchased another 178,000 tonnes of U.S. corn on Wednesday, bringing the total export sales to the country to more than 2.5 million tonnes in recent deals.
* The uptick in Chinese demand is likely driven by the shipping window before Brazil’s safrinha crop and concerns about a shorter 60-day extension of the Black Sea grains corridor, traders said.
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said export sales of wheat in the week ended March 16 totalled 138,600 tonnes, below trade forecasts.
* Corn export sales were reported at 3.189 million tonnes, in line with expectations. Export sales of soybeans totalled 351,500 tonnes, below market forecast.
* Argentina’s Buenos Aires grains exchange maintained its 2022/2023 production forecasts for both soy and corn on Thursday, but cautioned further cuts were possible with yields on the first batches of soy coming in below expectations.
* The exchange, which has been forced by a historic drought hitting the country to repeatedly sharply cut soybean and corn harvest forecasts, held its soy estimate at 25 million tonnes and its corn outlook at 36 million tonnes.
* The Russian government will consider increasing grain purchases by the state intervention fund to 10 million tonnes, the Interfax news agency reported Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko as saying on Thursday.
* The fund bought a total of 3 million tonnes in 2022.
MARKET NEWS
* Wall Street stocks rose on Thursday, pushing up global stock indexes, and Treasury yields fell, as investors took comfort that the Federal Reserve might pause its interest rate rises to offset the turmoil in financial markets. MKTS/GLOB
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0700 UK Retail Sales MM, YY Feb
0700 UK Retail Sales Ex-Fuel MM Feb
0815 France S&P Global Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs March
0830 Germany S&P Global Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs March
0900 EU S&P Global Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs March
0930 UK Flash Comp, Mfg, Serv PMIs March
1230 US Durable Goods Feb
1345 US S&P Global Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs March
(Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
((naveen.thukral@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6870-3829; Reuters Messaging: naveen.thukral.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
[ad_2]
Source link
