Wheat continues slide with Ukraine war negotiations in focus

The Kremlin said on Friday that the possibility of a Ukraine peace settlement remained, but declined to confirm reports that U.S. envoys were expected to visit Russia and Ukraine over the weekend for peace negotiations.

Russian state news agency TASS and U.S. news outlet Axios separately reported that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would visit Moscow and Kyiv in the next two days. However, plans for the U.S. envoys to visit Russia and Ukraine this weekend have yet to be finalised because of U.S. security concerns, a source familiar with the situation said.

Tit-for-tat attacks by Russia and Ukraine on each other's ports and shipping have brought the countries' Black Sea exports to a near halt. The squeeze led Asian wheat importers to buy at least half a million metric tons of Australian and Argentine wheat in recent deals, trade sources said this week.

Corn and soybeans chopped up and down in positioning ahead of the long weekend and next week's U.S. Department of Agriculture report.