The Black Sea truce announced by the US a day earlier continued to overhang wheat futures on Wednesday. Corn also finished with losses while soybeans were little changed.
The benchmark Chicago wheat market fell to its lowest since early this month, as the truce is expected to help make navigation in the Black Sea safer for merchant vessels. That could lead to heavier grain exports from both Russia and Ukraine. However, Russia still has conditions that it says must be met before it agrees to the deal. Some rainfall in the forecast in the coming days for parched Black Sea winter wheat crops added to the pressure. May Chicago wheat lost 8 cents to $5.35 ¼, May Kansas City was down 4 ¼ cents to $5.65, and May Minneapolis lost 3 ¼ cents to $5.85 ¼.
Corn was undermined by expectations that next week’s USDA prospective plantings report will show higher 2025 US corn intentions. The average pre-report trade guess puts new-crop corn planting intentions at 94.4 million acres, up from the 90.6 planted in 2024. Better rain for the safrinha crop in Brazil pressured as well. May corn fell 6 ½ cents to $4.51 ¼, and December lost 4 ½ cents to $4.44 ½.
Ideas that soybean intentions will be down compared to a year ago offered some support to that market. The average trade guess puts US soybean intentions for this year at 83.8 million acres, versus 87.1 million in 2024. May beans slipped ¾ of a cent to $10.01, but November was up a ¼ cent at $10.06 ¾.
