Corn eases from one-month high; soy falls for second day on dollar gain

May 20th, 2016

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

Farm track 450x299(Cattle Network) – Chicago corn futures slid on Thursday as a stronger dollar prompted investors to take profits after prices climbed to a near one-month peak in the last session.

The dollar stood tall in Asian trading, after racing to multi-week highs when the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting rekindled expectations for a June interest rate hike.

“The dollar strength is bearish for corn, wheat and soybeans,” said Kaname Gokon at brokerage Okato Shoji in Tokyo. “But we have corn planting delays due to cool and wet weather in the Midwest which will prevent any deep decline in prices.”

The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade fell 0.7 percent to $3.96-3/4 a bushel by 0241 GMT. Corn hit a near one-month high of $4.00-1/2 a bushel in the last session, the most since April 21.

Wheat lost 0.3 percent to $4.78-1/2 a bushel and soybeans gave up 0.7 percent to $10.67-1/4 a bushel.

A stronger U.S. dollar makes commodities, traded on a dollar basis, more expensive for importers holding other currencies.

The corn market on Wednesday received support from a proposal for higher ethanol blending in the United States.

U.S. regulators proposed a modest increase in the amount of corn-based ethanol and biofuels that fuel producers must mix into diesel and gasoline in 2017.

The Environmental Protection Agency called for 18.8 billion gallons to be blended into the nation’s fuel supply in 2017, up 4 percent from the 18.11 billion gallons set for this year.

Argentina could export up to 25 percent fewer soybeans this year than last, analysts said, after severe rains left many fields underwater, damaging oilseed quality.

In April, floods inundated key farm areas of Argentina, the world’s third-biggest exporter of raw soybeans, prompting the U.S. Department of Agriculture to slash its forecast for soybean output to 56.5 million tonnes this year.

There is additional pressure on wheat stemming from expectations of higher yields in the Black Sea region.

Warm and wet spring weather in leading Black Sea grain producers Russia and Ukraine, has paved the way for a large wheat harvest this year, analysts and traders said on Tuesday.

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