FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of
Trade (CBOT) gained 1.5% at 6.85-3/4 a bushel, as of 0022
GMT. Corn fell 0.2% to $6.42-1/4 a bushel and soybeans lost 0.1% to $14.91-3/4 a bushel.
* Russia on Friday threatened to bypass the UN-brokered
grain deal unless obstacles to its agricultural exports were
removed, while talks in Turkey agreed removing barriers was a
necessary condition to extending the agreement beyond next
month.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attending talks in
Ankara said he and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu
discussed "a failure" to implement the terms of the deal.
* He said Russia could work outside it if Western countries
maintain what he said were obstacles to agricultural exports
that were getting tougher.
* Forecasts for warmer, drier weather in the U.S. Farm Belt
added to pressure on CBOT futures, as it will encourage corn and
soybean plantings, traders said.
* Grain traders are awaiting a monthly U.S. agricultural
supply and demand report due on Tuesday.
* U.S. soybean export sales totalled 155,300 tonnes for the
week ended March 30, down 42% from the prior four-week average,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. That was below
analysts' expectations for 200,000 to 600,000 tonnes. There were
net cancellations of 48,300 tonnes for 2023/2024.
* For corn, weekly U.S. export sales of 1.2 million tonnes
for 2022/2023 were within analysts' estimates, though some were
hoping for a bigger number after the U.S. Department of
Agriculture recently made a string of daily sales announcements
to China.
* Agribusiness consultancy Safras & Mercado on Thursday
raised its estimate for Brazil's 2022/2023 soybean crop to
155.08 million tonnes from 152.43 million tonnes in a previous
forecast.
* Large speculators trimmed their net short position in CBOT
corn futures in the week to April 4, regulatory data released on
Friday showed.
* The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that noncommercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their net short position in CBOT wheat and raised their net long position in soybeans.
MARKET NEWS
* U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar climbed in an
abbreviated session on Friday after employment data for March
indicated the labour market remained tight last month, raising
the odds that the Federal Reserve has at least one more rate
hike in store. DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
The 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund take place in Washington D.C. (to Apr. 16)
(Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
