Wheat futures hit a one-week high on renewed concerns over dry weather in Russia, the world's biggest wheat supplier. In Argentina, corn stunt disease spread by leaf-cutter insects and adverse weather prompted the Buenos Aires grains exchange to slash its estimate for Argentina's 2023/24 corn harvest by 3 millions metric tons to 46.5 tons. In wheat, Russia's IKAR agricultural consultancy cut its forecast for the country's crop to 91 million metric tons from 93 million tons and its wheat exports to 50.5 million metric tons from 52 million tons. Wheat futures jumped as weather forecasts showed the region getting virtually no rain in the coming two weeks. Managed money funds held a net short position in CBOT wheat futures at the beginning of 2024 because of a strong dollar and slow U.S. demand, Zuzolo said.

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Persons: Jim Niewold, Susan Stroud, Mike Zuzolo, Nature, Zuzolo Organizations: Chicago Board of Trade, Global, Analytics Locations: Loda , Illinois, Brazil, Russia, Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul, Argentina, Buenos Aires, South America