Wheat Futures Soar Amid Black Sea Tensions and Slow Export Inspections

The wheat market saw significant gains on Monday, despite tensions in the Black Sea failing to cool off over the weekend. The Chicago Soft Red Winter (SRW) futures saw increases of 5 ¾ to 12 ¾ cents across the board.

Kansas City Hard Red Winter (HRW) futures were up by 4 to 10 3/4 cents, while MPLS spring wheat was 4 ½ to 5 ¾ cent gains on the session.

The latest NASS Crop Progress report showed that 96% of US spring wheat had been harvested by Sunday, matching the average pace. In contrast, the winter wheat crop was lagging behind the five-year average for planting pace by 4 percentage points at 17% complete, with emergence at 2%.

The Export Inspections report on Monday morning revealed that wheat shipments of 335,253 MT (12.32 mbu) in the week of 9/17 were down 29.12% from the previous week and more than a third less than the same period last year.