(Businessweek) – Corn fell for a sixth day, extending a slide to a 33-month low, on speculation U.S. crops will escape damage from hot weather in the next few weeks as temperatures remain cooler than normal. Soybeans and wheat also dropped.
Temperatures in central Iowa and Illinois, the top two corn-growing states, were forecast to remain below 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) through at least tomorrow, National Weather Service data show. Temperatures in the Midwest and northern and central Great Plains may see “significant, persistent cool weather during August,” AccuWeather Inc. said in a report today. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated domestic production may reach a record 13.95 billion bushels.
“In most areas the crops are growing rapidly and production figures are higher and rising,” economist Dennis Gartman said today in his daily Gartman Letter. “We may well see a corn crop becoming steadily closer to 15 billion bushels.”
Corn for December delivery fell 0.6 percent to $4.73 a bushel by 4:45 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Earlier, the price touched $4.72 a bushel, the lowest for most active futures since October 2010. Futures fell 4.9 percent last week.
Corn plunged 32 percent this year as the USDA expects the U.S. harvest to jump 29 percent from last year, when the worst drought since the 1930s damaged fields. Lack of significant hot weather in the Midwest will favor reproductive corn and soybeans, while rain should be near to above normal in some parts of the region, forecaster DTN said July 26.
Production
Soybeans for November delivery fell 0.9 percent to $12.17 a bushel. Futures touched $12.0725 on July 26, the lowest price since Feb. 2, 2012 and fell 3.6 percent last week. Output in the U.S., the largest soybean grower, will climb to a record 3.42 billion bushels, the USDA estimates.
Wheat for delivery in September declined 0.2 percent to $6.49 a bushel in Chicago. In Paris, milling wheat for November delivery dropped 0.9 percent to 186 euros ($247) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe, after earlier touching 185.75 euros, the lowest for a most-active contract since December 2011.
Russia had harvested about 36 percent of its wheat area as of July 26, collecting 27.8 million tons, up from 19.4 million tons at the same time last year, the country’s Agriculture Ministry said today. The European Union raised its forecast last week for production in the bloc to 131.7 million tons of soft wheat, up from an outlook of 128.9 million tons at the start of July.
“European markets continue to operate under the shadow of harvest results and price action coming out of the Black Sea,” Jaime Nolan-Miralles, a commodity risk manager at INTL FCStone Inc. in Dublin, said in an e-mailed report today.
