Por Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO, March 29 (Archyde.com) – U.S. wheat and corn futures fell more than 3% on Tuesday, following comments from Russia and Ukraine following talks in Turkey raised hopes of a ceasefire in the war that has disrupted grain exports through the Black Sea region.
* However, the wheel was volatile, with benchmark May wheat futures on the Chicago Stock Exchange trading in a 96-cent range from a session high of $10.6825 to a low of $9.72 per bushel.
* Both CBOT wheat and corn briefly fell below their respective daily limits before paring losses.
* At 1801 GMT, CBOT May wheat was down 39 cents at $10.18 a bushel. May corn fell 25 cents to $7.2350 a bushel and May soybeans fell 20.25 cents to $16.44 a bushel.
* The wheat market has been especially turbulent since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Both countries are major exporters of corn, and Ukraine is also a major world supplier of corn.
* Russia has promised to scale back military operations around the capital and northern Ukraine, and kyiv has proposed adopting neutral status, in confidence-building measures that were the first signs of progress toward peace.
* Grain futures fell along with oil in a “knee-jerk reaction” to that news, said Jack Scoville, a market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
* However, wheat and corn trimmed losses as some investors saw a buying opportunity as global grain supplies were shrinking even before the Russian invasion began.
* “We were very much up because of this war, and now maybe the war is going away, so we’re pulling back a little bit. But that doesn’t change the fact that the overall situation is still tight,” Scoville said.
* Traders continue to adjust their positions pending the US Department of Agriculture’s quarterly planting intentions and stocks reports due Thursday.
(Edited in Spanish by Javier Leira)