grain prices have suffered sharp declines with the latest extension of the black sea grain initiative only part of the reason why wheat futures recently posted their biggest daily decline since february and corn touched its lowest price since 2021 the russian federation confirmed its continued participation in the black sea initiative for another 60 days antónio guterres secretarygeneral of the united nations told the press on wednesday the original deal between russia and ukraine made with turkey and the un was reached in july of last year following russia’s invasion of ukraine to allow the safe export of food and fertilizer it has been renewed for months at a time this is “good news for the world” guterres said “outstanding issues remain” and representatives of russia ukraine turkey and the un will keep discussing them following the news futures prices for grains fell sharply on wednesday with wheat futures posting a loss of 34 for that session the largest oneday decline since feb 24 according to dow jones market data on thursday the mostactive july wheat contract wn23 w00 touched a low of 605 ½ a bushel the lowest intraday level since may 3 july corn cn23 c00 traded as low as 547 a bushel thursday the lowest intraday since oct 27 2021 and july soybeans sn23 s00 settled at 1333 ¼ a bushel the lowest finish since july 22 2022 “the extension is certainly good news” said brett friedman managing partner at winhall risk analytics but the “recent price action in wheat corn and soybeans seems to indicate that the market anticipated that an extension was likely” prices came off on the news but “only really resumed and confirmed the bearish trend that was already in place” he told marketwatch “a true shock would have been no extension which would have led to sharply higher prices as traders reacted to the unexpected” he pointed out that commodities including agricultural commodities have been on the defensive since midapril the bloomberg commodity index bcom has lost nearly 6 since midapril factset data show indeed bearish sentiment was already “currently present in grain markets” sal gilbertie president and chief investment officer at teucrium trading told marketwatch the grain markets have already been burdened by “ideal planting weather in the northern hemisphere much needed rain in south america” and last friday’s monthly world agricultural supply and demand estimates report from the us department of agriculture which predicted large inventory builds in corn the usda report released on may 12 showed the us corn crop projection at a record 153 billion bushels for the 20232024 marketing year up more than 10 from last year citing increases in both area and crop yield wheat and corn are leading the way lower because supplies of wheat are at historically high levels in russia the world’s largest wheat exporter and supplies of corn in the us and brazil the world’s two largest corn exporters are projected to increase “dramatically” this crop year said gilbertie “it seems likely that grain prices in general will continue their trek towards the cost of production now that the supply constraints in markets finally seem to be easing a bit as global inventories rebuild” meanwhile demand for corn has seen a slowdown said darin newsom barchart senior market analyst that’s “highlighted by recent cancellations of export sales by china” he said on the futures market july corn broke through previous lows wednesday triggering increased selling interest from fund investment and algorithm traders and “panic selling from others holding either long futures position or actual cash bushels” he said read why wheat prices hit their lowest in over a year as key russiaukraine graindeal deadline nears the “elephant in the room for both corn and wheat is the extension of the black sea agreement” said newsom “i don’t think it is a big deal because ukraine has little grain to move” with russia having allegedly taken most of it over the last year he said but “it is possible funds are using headlines to position themselves”