(Reuters) – U.S. wheat futures edged 0.5 percent lower on Thursday, extending losses into a second session, although concerns over future sales from Ukraine put a floor under losses.
FUNDAMENTALS
Chicago Board Of Trade May wheat fell 0.5 percent to $6.39-1/4 a bushel, having closed 0.2 percent lower in the previous session, but remains not far off two-and-a-half month highs.
May soybeans rose 0.1 percent to $14.22 a bushel, having slid 0.2 percent on Wednesday.
May corn fell 0.5 percent to $4.79-3/4 a bushel, having closed 0.5 percent lower in the previous session.
Foreign trading houses have shunned new grain export contracts due to continued tensions between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Ihor Shvaika said on Wednesday.
The U.S. Grains Council said grain shipments from Ukraine are “becoming increasingly difficult,” although ports are open and vessels are loading.
U.S. Department of Agriculture said private exporters reported the cancellation of 245,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans sold earlier to China for delivery in the 2013/14 marketing year begun September 1.
Egypt’s wheat stocks dropped by 34 percent last year, the state-run statistics body said on Wednesday, a fall that has prompted the current government to boost imports.
MARKET NEWS
The euro stayed on the defensive early on Thursday, having lost ground against many of its peers as investors made short shrift of the common currency ahead of possible policy easing by the European Central Bank.
Oil prices slid nearly $2 per barrel on Wednesday as U.S. government data reflected weaker oil demand as Europe and the United States head into spring and refiners move into maintenance season.
The S&P 500 finished almost flat on Wednesday, a day after closing at an all-time high, as investors shrugged off soft data on jobs and the services sector while keeping an eye on developments in Ukraine.
