CHICAGO, July 19 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat futures soared on Wednesday, with the most-active Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat contract briefly hitting its daily trading limit, as escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war threatened to slow grain export shipments, traders said.
Corn and soybean futures also were strong, with soybeans posting their fifth straight day of gains and hitting their highest level in more than a month as forecasts for hot and dry weather raised concerns about crop stress in the U.S. Midwest.
Russia's Defence Ministry said it would deem all ships traveling to Ukrainian ports to be potential carriers of military cargo and their flag countries to be parties to the conflict on the Ukrainian side.
"Things got heated back up over in Ukraine," said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading. "There is some real shooting going on over there and nobody is going to get in the middle of that. That is the bread basket of Europe and shippers are pulling out."
At 11:26 a.m. CDT (1626 GMT), CBOT September soft red winter wheat futures were up 54 cents at $7.24-3/4 cents a bushel.
Russia launched air attacks on grain terminals and port infrastructure in Odesa for a second night in row but Ukrainian officials said early on Wednesday that the port would continue exporting grain.
CBOT December corn futures gained 15-1/2 cents to $5.50 a bushel, peaking at their highest level since June 27. CBOT November soybean futures rose 14-3/4 cents to $14.10 a bushel and hit their highest since June 16.
Traders said the weather outlook raised the prospect of reduced U.S. harvests of both crops, keeping concerns about global supplies at the forefront of the market.
"I think we are a lot tighter than we look," said Mark Gold, managing partner at Top Third Ag Marketing. "If it stays hot and dry, corn and bean futures are not going down." (Reporting by Mark Weinraub in Chicago Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Varun H K and Matthew Lewis)
