Corn Drops With Soybeans as Dry Weather May Aid Crop Conditions

June 10th, 2013

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

(Bloomberg) – Corn and soybeans fell in Chicago, paring two sessions of gains, on speculation drier weather in the U.S. will improve planting conditions. Wheat headed for a fourth straight decline.

Rain that fell in western U.S. growing areas during the weekend mostly missed the central Midwest, allowing farmers to speed up planting early this week, Commodity Weather Group said today in a report. The central and southeastern Midwest may see rain starting June 12. Ninety-one percent of corn and 57 percent of soybeans were sown in main growing regions by June 2, below the five-year average pace, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. The agency will update its crop-progress report today.

“Over the weekend, the weather in the grain-producing region of North America returned to modestly better conditions,” economist Dennis Gartman said today in his daily Gartman Letter. “Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri have had very good growing conditions, and as a result the grains are trading just a bit weaker.”

Corn for delivery in December slid 1.4 percent to $5.505 a bushel at 7:01 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade after advancing 3 percent in the prior two sessions. Soybeans for delivery in November dropped 0.7 percent to $13.2075 a bushel.

The USDA may cut its forecast for the domestic corn harvestto 13.82 billion bushels from last month’s 14.14 billion bushels, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts before a monthly crop report due June 12. Soybean production may be 3.371 billion bushels, down from the earlier projection at 3.39 billion bushels, the analysts said. Both crops would still be the highest on record after planting climbed following last year’s drought.

Argentine Strike

In Argentina, the world’s second-biggest corn exporter and third-largest shipper of soybeans, farmers will suspend all trade in grains for at least seven days, Eduardo Buzzi, head of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, said yesterday in a radio interview with Radio Mitre. Farmers will provide a schedule for the strike tomorrow, Buzzi said. The strike is mainly aimed at ceasing grain and oilseed shipments to overseas buyers.

Wheat for delivery in July slid 0.7 percent to $6.915 a bushel. In Paris, milling wheat for delivery in November fell 0.6 percent to 202.50 euros ($267.56) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe.

To contact the reporters on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net; Ranjeetha Pakiam in Kuala Lumpur at rpakiam@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

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