(Businessweek) – Corn reached a 34-month low in Chicago as cool weather and moist soil boosted optimism that the harvest will climb to a record in the U.S., the world’s biggest producer of the grain.
Near-to-below-normal temperatures in the Midwest through August’s first half will favor corn pollination and soil moisture will stay favorable over southern and eastern areas, DTN said Aug. 2. U.S. farmers may harvest a record 13.95 billion bushels of corn, 29 percent above the prior year, when a drought hurt crops, the Department of Agriculture estimates.
“The crop looks to be a known quantity now,” said Simon Clancy, director for brokering services at Ikon Commodities Pty Ltd. in Sydney. “Global consumers are seeing that and probably relaxing a little, becoming more comfortable that they’ll be able to get supply at current levels or lower.”
Corn for delivery in December slid 0.5 percent to $4.615 a bushel at 5:29 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices reached $4.6125, the lowest for a most-active contract since Oct. 4, 2010. The grain retreated 6.3 percent in July, the sixth straight drop and the worst run since 1996.
The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of eight agricultural commodities slumped 19 percent this year as corn lost 34 percent and soybeans dropped 16 percent on expectations U.S. crops will be the biggest ever.
Corn will top the USDA’s forecast, rising to 14.269 billion bushels in 2013, researcher Doane Advisory Services Co. in St. Louis said Aug. 2. Doane’s August corn estimate last year was among the most-accurate, at 0.1% above the final USDA tally.
Soybeans for delivery in November were little changed at $11.8175 a bushel and wheat for delivery in September gained 0.1 percent to $6.61 a bushel. Milling wheat for delivery in November traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris fell 0.4 percent to 185.75 euros ($246.58) a metric ton after earlier reaching the lowest since October 2010.
Milling wheat “may remain below 190 euros a ton all week as the harvest is pressuring prices,” Arnaud Saulais, a broker at Starsupply Commodity Brokers in Nyon, Switzerland, wrote in an e-mailed comment.
