Wheat jumps on Black Sea disruptions, corn eases

By Reuters News

By Naveen Thukral

SINGAPORE, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat rose almost 1% on Monday, recovering from a multi-week low as a lack of progress in restoring Black Sea supplies disrupted by the Russia-Ukraine war supported prices.

Corn fell on pressure from large US inventories, while soybeans edged higher. Both commodities are likely to face headwinds from the ongoing US harvest.

"There were some hopes of Black Sea exports resuming but nothing seems to have happened and cargoes are still not moving out," said one Singapore-based wheat trader.

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 0.9% to $6.89 a bushel, as of 0118 GMT. The market dropped to its lowest since mid-August last week.

Corn fell 0.2% to $4.97-1/4 a bushel, while soybeans added 0.2% to $12.80-1/4 a bushel.

Corn was trading near its lowest level since mid-August, while soybeans were not far from last week's five-week low.

A lack of progress in diplomatic efforts to restore normal shipping through the Black Sea supported the wheat market. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday rejected proposals for a truce in Black Sea attacks.

Grain consultancy Sovecon said it had cut its forecast for Russia's 2026/27 grain exports to 44.7 million metric tons, down from 49.4 million tons seen earlier, warning that Azov and Black Sea ports will remain shut until 2027.

The size of this autumn's US corn and soybean harvests is being debated among traders, who are awaiting crop production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Commodity brokerage StoneX last week lowered its estimate of the average US 2026 corn yield to 182.1 bushels per acre (bpa) from 182.9 bushels in its previous monthly report released on September 8.

For soybeans, StoneX raised its forecast of the US 2026 yield to 54.1 bpa from its September estimate of 53.0 bpa.

The corn market is facing pressure after the USDA reported last week that US farmers and grain handlers had 35% more corn in storage as of September 1 than a year earlier.

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