CANBERRA- Chicago wheat futures rose on Thursday as the market braced for a potential Canadian rail stoppage that would disrupt exports from North America, but plentiful supply from the Black Sea region kept prices near four-year lows.
Chicago corn edged higher and soybeans fell, with both crops near their lowest levels since 2020 as a major crop tour reinforced expectations of bumper US production.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.2 percent at $5.45-1/4 a bushel, after falling 2.3 percent on Wednesday. The contract is, however, not far from last month’s four-year low of $5.14.
Canada’s freight rail transport could come to a grinding halt on Thursday following deadlocked talks over labor contracts, threatening exports of Canadian and US wheat.
However, large expected wheat harvests in Russia and North America are keeping a lid on prices, and global demand has been lacklustre, with China, a major buyer in the first half of the year, forecast to slow its imports.
“There’s a lot of supply,” said Andrew Whitelaw, an analyst at consultants Episode 3 in Canberra.
