Wheat drops on firm dollar, hopes for Black Sea corridor talks

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CHICAGO — U.S. wheat futures fell on Friday, surrendering all of the prior session’s gains on a stronger dollar and hopes of progress in negotiations to maintain a Ukrainian Black Sea grain export corridor.

Corn and soybeans followed wheat lower, weighed down by lackluster demand and spillover pressure from lower energy and equities markets.

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The drop in wheat, its third in four sessions, put it on track for a second straight weekly decline.

Wheat had surged on Thursday after Russia’s Geneva U.N. ambassador told Reuters that Moscow could reject a renewal of the corridor deal that has allowed wartime exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

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However, there were hopes of progress in negotiations after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan.

“All the reasons that wheat rallied yesterday were taken away today,” said Ted Seifried, chief agriculture strategist for the Zaner Group.

“Putin said he’s not happy with the deal and he may end it. Well, he hasn’t, so maybe it’s just talk … Then you have the dollar turning around, taking back the majority of yesterday’s weakness,” he said.

Chicago Board of Trade December wheat dropped 23-1/2 cents to $8.68-3/4 a bushel by 11:58 a.m. CDT (1758 GMT). CBOT December corn fell 5-3/4 cents to $6.92 a bushel while November soybeans shed 9 cents to $13.86-3/4 a bushel.

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Poor export demand pressured corn as the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday reported net sales last week of just 260,700 tonnes, below trade expectations.

Tepid sales also weighed on soybeans, although weekly sales of 724,400 tonnes were in line with estimates.

Several large daily soybean export sales announcements by USDA this week totalling 1.622 million tonnes, mostly to top importer China, offered little support to futures as the deals are considered routine sales, traders said. (Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore Editing by Kirsten Donovan)