Wars and Weather Scare Send Wheat Futures Soaring

U.S. wheat growers have regained hope that the market may be forming a foundation to sustain a longer-term bull market as weather woes shrink global supplies.

The combination of two wars and a weather scare has put wheat on a bullish track, with winter wheat futures soaring to three-year highs in late July.

Hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, and Russia and Ukraine, have escalated tensions in key grain-exporting hubs, particularly the Black Sea region where Russia and Ukraine account for about 27% of global wheat exports.

'Grain shipments through the Black Sea region are seizing up,' said Tanner Ehmke, CoBank's lead economist for grains and oilseeds, 'The attacks have severely restricted shipping through key grain and oilseed corridors.'