Jittery Traders Brace For Expanded Wheat Price Limits

After multiple days last week of limit-up closes in the wheat futures, the CME Group announced that they will increase the limit at which wheat can move from the previous day’s close to 85 cents per bushel.  Should a contract month close at that level, the expanded price limit for the next day will be $1.30.  The updated rates apply to Chicago and Kansas City winter wheat contracts which are listed on the Chicago Board of Trade.  Spring wheat contracts in Minneapolis currently remain at a limit of 60 cents.  The rates are in effect for at least the next two months, and come as wheat futures surged higher by over 40 percent following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent economic sanctions.  The two nations accounted for over 103 million tons of wheat production in 2019, almost twice the amount grown in the U.S.

Wheat won’t be the only commodity with expanded limits Monday.  Limit-down closes Friday on the lean hogs means that expanded limits are in effect Monday, with a maximum change of $7 per hundredweight.