By Mark Weinraub
CHICAGO, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures jumped 3.2% on Tuesday, supported by concerns about rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine as well as cold weather that could threaten the crop in dry parts of the United States.
“If there is a problem between Russia and Ukraine, it could be very disruptive to the world wheat trade,” said Mark Gold, managing partner at Top Third Ag Marketing.
The most active CBOT wheat contract Wv1 notched its biggest daily gain since Oct. 1.
The gains in wheat pulled corn higher, but soybeans fell on forecasts for much-needed rain in key growing areas of Brazil and Argentina.
A strong export report from the U.S. Agriculture Department also helped support wheat.
The USDA said that weekly export inspections of wheat totaled 369,188 tonnes, up from 234,356 tonnes the prior week and near the high end of market forecasts.
Additionally, Turkey’s state grain board TMO provisionally purchased some 335,000 tonnes of wheat in an international tender, traders said.
Chicago Board of Trade March soft red winter wheat futures WH2 settled up 27-1/2 cents at $7.69 a bushel.
Better-than-expected export inspections also lent support to corn and soybean futures.
Weekly soybean inspections totaled 1.721 million tonnes and corn export inspections were reported at 1.204 million tonnes.
CBOT March soybeans SH2 ended down 8-1/2 cents at $13.61-1/4 a bushel, their third straight losing session.
Soybeans finished well above their lows after a National Oilseed Processors Association report showed that processors crushed 186.438 million bushels of soybeans during December, the biggest monthly total on record.
CBOT March corn CH2 settled up 3-1/4 cents at $5.99-1/2 a bushel. “In Argentina, the long-awaited rains arrived this weekend and should last for the next few days,” consultancy Agritel said.
Some rain is also expected in drought-affected southern Brazil.
(Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Jonathan Oatis)
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