(Reuters) – U.S. corn lost more ground on Monday, sliding to a near one-week low, while soybeans fell for a second session on hopes that dry weather in the U.S. Midwest will boost harvest of record crops.
Wheat fell more than 1 percent to its lowest since Oct. 20, tracking losses in the corn market.
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) front-month soybeans fell 0.4 percent to $9.74 a bushel by 0227 GMT, having slumped 1.6 percent on Friday.
Corn hit a low of $3.49-1/2 a bushel, its weakest since Oct. 21 and wheat dropped 1.1 percent to $5.12 a bushel, having closed down 1.7 percent on Friday.
“We have seen a considerable rally over the last couple of weeks and now the markets are coming back as the fundamentals haven’t changed much,” said Graydon Chong, senior grains analyst, Rabobank.
“Fundamentally we have a lot of grains and oilseeds around the world. We are just about half way through the U.S. harvest and we really do know what yields look like for corn and soybeans.”
Last week, U.S. soybeans rose to their highest since mid-September, while corn hit its highest since Aug. 22 with support from wet weather delaying harvest and fund buying. Wheat had reached its highest since early September.
Large speculators raised their net long position in CBOT corn futures in the week to Oct. 21, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitments of traders report also showed that noncommercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and trimmed their net short position in soybeans.
Dry weather is now allowing U.S. farmers to rapidly push on with harvesting corn and soybeans.
There was additional bearish news stemming from China as the country battles with record stockpiles of grains.
China will strengthen control over grains imports and crack down on illegal activities like smuggling in a bid to cut oversupply, with record stockpiles creating storage problems for the new harvest, China’s vice premier said on Friday.
China’s stockpiling policy, under which it buys from farmers at inflated prices, has made cheaper overseas supplies more attractive for end-users like feed mills, forcing the government to take action to try to curb surging imports.
Scattered rains fell over Brazil’s center-west and southeast agricultural areas on Friday, including parts of the drought-ridden coffee state of Minas Gerais, and heavier storms were due to follow next week, meteorologists said.
