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Wheat, corn firm with weather, Black Sea tensions in focus
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Soyoil joins slide in vegetable oil prices
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quotes, changes byline, changes dateline from previous
PARIS/SINGAPORE)
By Cassandra Garrison
MEXICO CITY, April 12 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures
edged up on Wednesday, boosted by renewed Russian criticism of
the deal allowing Ukraine to export grain from Black Sea ports,
while soy and corn also ticked higher.
Soybean futures regained some ground lost earlier in the
session amid a bumper harvest in Brazil and a slide in vegetable
oil markets that offset support from drought losses to
Argentina's crop.
Corn also rose slightly to recoup losses from Tuesday, with
participants assessing weather conditions and tensions over a
Black Sea export corridor from war-torn Ukraine.
Wheat prices were getting support from the latest
wrangling over the agreement.
Moscow, which agreed in mid-March to extend the arrangement for a reduced period until mid-May, said on Wednesday prospects for the deal were "not so great".
"That has been supportive to the wheat market here
today, and a little bit for corn," said Jack Scoville, analyst
with the Price Futures Group in Chicago.
East European Union countries near Ukraine have called for
measures to curb flows of cheaper Ukrainian grain to their
markets.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade
(CBOT) gained 0.89% to $6.80 a bushel by 1147 GMT by 0950
CDT (1450 GMT).
Soybeans gained 0.03% to $14.97-3/4 and corn added 0.23% to $6.52-1/2 a bushel.
Soybean production in Argentina will fall to a 23-year low and corn production to a five-year low due to drought, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Tuesday as it cut sharply its forecasts for Argentina's crops.
But the USDA increased its outlook for Brazil's soy crop to
a new record, while holding its projection for bigger corn
output there this season.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City, Gus Trompiz in
Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Subhranshu
Sahu, Rashmi Aich, Sharon Singleton and Ed Osmond)
