CHICAGO, July 19 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat futures jumped 8.5% on Wednesday, their biggest daily gain since days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as intensification of the war threatened to slow grain export shipments from a major global supplier.
The benchmark Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat contract briefly touched its daily trading limit and hit its highest in more than three weeks as Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Western countries of perverting the expired Black Sea grain deal that allowed for exports from Ukraine.
Corn and soybean futures also were strong, with soybeans posting their fifth straight day of gains and hitting their highest level in more than a month as forecasts for hot and dry weather raised concerns about crop stress in the U.S. Midwest.
Russia warned that from Thursday any ships sailing to Ukraine's Black Sea ports would be seen as potentially carrying military cargoes, as Kyiv accused Moscow of carrying out "hellish" overnight strikes that damaged grain export infrastructure.
A considerable part of the grain export infrastructure at Chornomorsk port southwest of Odesa was damaged, Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky said, adding that 60,000 tons of grain had been destroyed.
"The threat of this kind of escalation could cut all of the water born grain shipments off from the Black Sea, both Russian, and Ukrainian, which puts us right back into the situation we were presented with back in March of 2022," Marex Capital analyst Charlie Sernatinger wrote in a client note.
CBOT September soft red winter wheat futures settled up 57 cents at $7.27-3/4 cents a bushel after peaking at $7.30-3/4.
"Things got heated back up over in Ukraine," said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading. "There is some real shooting going on over there and nobody is going to get in the middle of that. That is the bread basket of Europe and shippers are pulling out."
CBOT December corn futures gained 18-1/2 cents to $5.53 a bushel, peaking at their highest level since June 27. CBOT November soybean futures rose 13-1/2 cents to $14.08-3/4 a bushel and hit their highest since June 16.
Soybean futures have risen for five sessions in a row, their longest streak of gains since December.
Traders said the weather outlook raised the prospect of reduced U.S. harvests of both crops, keeping concerns about global supplies at the forefront of the market. (Reporting by Mark Weinraub in Chicago Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Varun H K, Matthew Lewis and Grant McCool)
