(NASDAQ) – Grain futures fell on Thursday, pressured by abundant supplies of corn and wheat.
Meanwhile, soybean prices were mixed.
The fresh wheat supplies come online as federal forecasters are protecting domestic inventories next season will top one billion bushels, and global wheat stockpiles are expected to remain large despite crop shortfalls in Europe. Disappointing export sales also weighed on prices for the grain Thursday.
Huge U.S. wheat reserves are “the overriding problem here,” said Kurt Koester, president of Iowa-based grain brokerage AgriSource Inc. “The trade is charged with trying to find a fair price for that kind of burdensome supply.”
Wheat futures for delivery in September declined 7 cents, or 1.7%, to $4.03 1/4 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices for the grain recently have been trading at the lowest levels since September 2006.
Corn prices dropped to a 23-month low, weighed down by largely favorable Midwest weather and lower wheat prices. Federal projections that U.S. farmers will harvest a record corn crop this year also buffeted prices for the grain.
“The trade is anticipating a larger-than-life corn yield,” Mr. Koester said, noting that U.S. corn output could top 15 million bushels this year.
CBOT September corn fell 4 1/4 cents, or 1.3%, to $3.20 3/4 a bushel, the lowest closing price since September 2014.
Soybean were mixed, with nearby futures closing unchanged from the previous session, while later-dated contracts ticked higher. Prices for the oilseeds traded higher for much of the day due to evidence of robust demand for U.S. supplies. But the market lost strength as the day wore on due to wetter forecasts for the Farm Belt and speculation that U.S. growers will harvest a massive soybean crop for the fourth year in a row.
CBOT August soybeans were flat, while most actively traded November contracts added 1 1/4 cents, or 0.1%, to $9.56 3/4 a bushel.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/grains-drop-amid-burdensome-supplies-soy-mixed-20160804-01166#ixzz4GSxyOh55
