CHICAGO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat futures rose on
Friday, supported by Russia's plan to double its tax on exports
of the grain, while corn and soybeans fell as traders took money
out of the market following their surge to multi-year highs
earlier in the week.
Wheat traded both sides of unchanged, ending in positive
territory but well below the day's peaks after hitting its
highest level since 2014 overnight. Traders said leading world
supplier Russia's tax plans fanned concerns about reduced global
availability.
"This is going to reduce Russian exports," said Nathan
Cordier of consultancy Agritel. "The response of the market is
in a way to stifle demand (with high prices)."
CBOT March soft red winter wheat settled 5-1/2 cents
higher at $6.75-1/2 a bushel. The most-active contract
peaked at $6.93 overnight, its highest since May 2014.
K.C. March hard red winter wheat was up 7-3/4 cents
at $6.44-1/4 a bushel. K.C. futures, which track the crop that
makes up the bulk of U.S. exports, hit overnight their highest
since December 2014.
Russia plans to impose a wheat export tax of 50 euros a
tonne from March 1, increasing an initial 25 euro levy due to
apply from Feb. 15, its economy minister said on Friday, in
another push to cool domestic food prices.
CBOT March corn futures were down 2-3/4 cents at
$5.31-1/2 a bushel and CBOT March soybeans dropped 13-3/4 cents
to $14.16-3/4 a bushel.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's reduced forecasts for
U.S. corn and soybean supplies on Tuesday sparked a rally that
pushed soybeans to a 6-1/2-year high and corn to a 7-1/2-year
high.
But the market was waiting for more bullish news before
driving prices above those levels.
"We pulled back from the spike highs," said Matthew Wiegand,
broker at FuturesOne. "We are just kind of drifting."
(Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen
Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens, Dan Grebler and
Paul Simao)