(Reuters) – U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat all fell on Wednesday on ample supplies and a broad sell-off across commodities, traders said.
Corn fell to its lowest in over a month and soybeans dropped below $10 a bushel, pulling wheat down, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)forecasts on Monday of large grain and soybean supplies continued to undermine prices.
“The grains and soybean market is being weakened by a series of factors today,” said Frank Rijkers, agrifood economist at ABN AMRO Bank.
“There is continued focus on the large supplies of corn and soybeans expected by the USDA, general weakness in commodities caused by the World Bank’s forecast of reduced growth, investment switching from agricultural commodities into crude oil while crop weather is generally positive.”
Chicago Board of Trade March corn fell 1.2 percent to $3.81 a bushel at 1123 GMT, its lowest since Dec. 4 and following a fall of over 4 percent on Tuesday.
March soybeans fell 0.8 percent and below the psychologically-important $10 a bushel level to $995-3/4 a bushel. March wheat fell 0.9 percent to $5.43 a bushel, having lost more than 7 percent in the previous five sessions.
“The USDA’s forecast of large corn and soybean supplies on Monday continues to weaken both corn and soybeans and wheat is being pulled down in their hadow,” Rijkers said.
The USDA on Monday forecast record-large global soybean supplies and the
largest U.S. domestic corn supply in history.
U.S. commercial soybean supplies were the largest ever on Dec. 1 while South merican farmers may gather their biggest soybean crop in history. The USDA also aid U.S. corn stocks were a record on Dec. 1.
Crude oil and other commodities came under selling pressure on Wednesday fter the World Bank on Tuesday lowered its global growth forecast.
Ole Houe, analyst at brokerage IKON Commodities, said: “Fundamentals are pretty well known, it is funds that are reducing their exposure to agricultural commodities. It is purely money flow driven.”
