By Gus Trompiz and Enrico Dela Cruz
PARIS/MANILA (Reuters) – Chicago wheat futures fell on Friday after earlier hitting their highest since mid-2008, as investors turned back to equities and traders assessed potential disruption to grain supplies from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Corn eased back from Thursday’s eight-month peak, while soybeans slipped from a 9-1/2-year top in the previous session as the market tried to gauge the consequences on grain and oilseed supplies from the conflict between two of the world’s biggest exporters.
Missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital on Friday as Russian forces pressed their advance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded with the international community to do more.
Investors returned to buying equities as financial markets recovered from Thursday’s dramatic session when Russia started a military assault on Ukraine. [MKTS/GLOB]
The-most-active Chicago Board of Trade May wheat contract was down 3.7% at $9.00-1/2 a bushel by 1045 GMT, pulling back from $9.60-3/4 earlier in the session, which was its highest since June 2008.
Daily price limits for CBOT wheat futures were expanded for Friday’s session, after the most-active contract soared by the maximum in the previous session.
On Euronext, benchmark May wheat was down 1.4% at 310.75 euros ($347.36) a tonne after soaring on Thursday to 341.75 euros, an all-time record for the European futures market.
“The markets are very nervous and in the current environment the volatility is unprecedented,” consultancy Agritel said.
“The impact of the conflict on the Black Sea basin is difficult to analyze, depending mainly on the duration of the conflict and the impact of sanctions that could be taken against Russia.”
Russia and Ukraine account for 29% of global wheat exports, 19% of world maize (corn) exports, and 80% of world sunflower oil exports.
Moscow’s invasion led Ukraine to close its ports while Russia halted commercial shipping in the Azov Sea, raising the prospect of importers having to find alternative supply sources.
On Thursday, top wheat importer Egypt canceled its latest purchasing tender after receiving just one offer after the invasion.
Tunisia, which relies on Russia and Ukraine for about half of its grain needs, said on Thursday it had completed necessary grain purchase orders before the invasion.
Lebanon, which imports 60% of its wheat from Ukraine, said it was in talks with India to import more.
CBOT corn fell 1.9% to $6.77 a bushel while soybeans shed 1.5% to $16.29-1/2 a bushel.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; additional reporting by Emily Chow in Beijing; Editing by Devika Syamnath, Simon Cameron-Moore and Shailesh Kuber)
