Corn extends two-day losses to 1 pct on harvest progress

October 23rd, 2014

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

Corn_Chart450x299(Reuters) – U.S. corn futures fell on Thursday, extending two-day losses to 1 percent, as dry weather across key growing regions raised expectations that the harvest will rapidly advance and pressure cash markets.

Wheat fell for the first time in three sessions as traders squared positions, while soybeans fell on harvest-friendly weather.

Chicago Board of Trade front-month corn futures fell 0.1 percent to $3.52-1/2 a bushel, having closed down 0.8 percent in the previous session.

“The onset of dry conditions, which are forecast to remain for more than a week, will probably mean that we see corn slip away further,” said Andrew Woodhouse, grains analyst, Advance Trading Australasia.

Corn had drawn support earlier in the week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that the progress of the harvest was behind previous years.

The corn harvest was 31 percent complete as of Sunday, the USDA said this week, up from 24 percent a week earlier but still below the average of 53 percent

Front-month wheat fell 0.5 percent to $5.19-3/4 a bushel, having closed up 0.6 percent on Wednesday, while front-month soybeans fell 0.3 percent to $9.59-3/4 a bushel, having firmed 0.2 percent in the previous session.

Soybeans were under pressure from the forecast dry weather, analysts said, which allowed farmers to progress harvesting.

U.S. farmers had harvested 53 percent of their soybean crop as of Sunday, up from 40 percent a week earlier but below the five-year average of 66 percent, according to USDA.

The USDA said on Wednesday that private exporters reported sales of 419,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China and 113,000 tonnes of soybeans to unknown destinations, all for delivery in 2014/15.

Soybean losses were capped by the dry weather in South America, traders said, although updated weather models call for more favorable conditions, stoking market expectations that the region may capture some market share from the United States.

Parts of Brazil are dry, but meteorologists said widespread rains should extend over all of the country’s grain, coffee and sugar-growing areas next week.

Brazil’s soy planting is 10 percent complete for the 2014-15 crop, the slowest for this time of year since the 2008-09 season, consultancy AgRural said on Monday.

 

 

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