(Businessweek) – Corn for December delivery rose to the highest in more than three weeks before a government report today that may show wet weather slowed planting in some regions. Soybeans also gained.
Much of Iowa and central Illinois, the largest corn and soybean states, had twice the normal amount of rain in the past week, National Weather Service data show. Seventy-one percent of corn and 24 percent of soybeans were planted in the main U.S. growing areas as of May 19, trailing the average pace, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said last week. The agency will update its crop progress report today. The northern and western Midwest may see more downpours this week, AccuWeather Inc. said.
“Rains have slowed fieldwork,” Jaime Nolan-Miralles, a commodity risk manager at INTL FCStone in Dublin, said in an e-mailed report today. “Any additional slowdown will drive concerns on yield penalty for corn. Where corn plantings slow, beans also slow.”
Corn for December delivery rose 1.3 percent to $5.435 a bushel by 6:43 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, after earlier touching $5.4875 a bushel, the highest for that contract since May 3. Soybeans for July delivery, the most-active by open interest, gained 0.7 percent to $14.8625 a bushel. Markets in the U.S. were closed yesterday for a public holiday.
Much of the Midwest may see showers starting May 30, with as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) falling through the weekend from Missouri to Michigan, Commodity Weather Group said today in a report. Southeast Iowa and parts of Illinois and Missouri are at risk for floods, it said.
The USDA estimated May 10 that the corn harvest will rise to a record 359.2 million metric tons this year as fields recover from last year’s drought. Soybean output may be 92.26 million tons, also the highest ever. Crops planted after mid-May in Iowa may be at risk of yield losses, according to Iowa State University data.
Wheat for July delivery fell 0.1 percent to $6.9675 a bushel in Chicago, with the most-active contract set to drop 4.7 percent this month. In Paris, milling wheat for November delivery increased 0.2 percent to 204.50 euros ($264.56) a ton on NYSE Liffe.
