CBOT Trends-Wheat up 2-4 cents, corn up 2-4, soybeans up 6-8

- The following are U.S. expectations for the resumption of grain and soy complex trading at the Chicago Board of Trade at 8:30 a.m. CDT (1330 GMT) on Thursday.

WHEAT - Up 2 to 4 cents per bushel

  • CBOT wheat futures moved up, following soy and corn, as doubts grew over the prospects for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, supporting crops used as feedstock to make biofuel. GRA/

  • Analysts say the poor condition of drought-afflicted U.S. wheat has now been priced in and the market is looking ahead to months of harvest pressure on prices.

  • CBOT July soft red winter wheat WN26 was last up 2-3/4 cents at $6.25-1/4 a bushel. K.C. July hard red winter wheat KWN26 was last down 2-1/2 cents at $6.67-1/4 a bushel, while Minneapolis July spring wheat MWEN26 was 1-1/4 cents lower at $6.79-1/2 a bushel.

CORN - Up 2 to 4 cents per bushel

  • Corn futures ticked up, supported by rising oil prices after Iran and the U.S. traded air strikes.

  • Oil prices jumped more than 2% on Thursday after Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted a U.S. airbase in response to an earlier U.S. attack in the port city of Bandar Abbas. O/R

  • Corn futures have tracked oil prices during much of the U.S.-Iran war because of corn's role in making the biofuel ethanol.

  • Leading South Korean animal feed maker Nonghyup Feed Inc. (NOFI) bought an estimated 133,000 metric tons of animal feed corn in an international tender seeking up to 138,000 tons on Thursday, European traders said.

  • CBOT July corn CN26 was last up 3-1/4 cents at $4.55-3/4 per bushel.

SOYBEANS - Up 6 to 8 cents per bushel

  • Soybean futures also firmed as oil prices rose because of the use of soybeans in biofuel production.

  • The attack in Bandar Abbas came after the United States struck what Washington described as an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz.

  • These attacks, while limited, highlight the fragility of negotiations to turn the tenuous ceasefire that took effect in early April into an agreement to end the three-month-old war.

  • CBOT July soybeans SN26 were last 7 cents higher at $11.92-1/4 per bushel.