(Reuters) – Chicago soybeans slid on Wednesday to their lowest in more than a week on pressure from expectations the U.S. government will further increase its production estimate in next week’s supply-demand report.
Corn ticked higher, recouping some of last session’s deep losses while wheat rose after declining marginally on Tuesday.
The Chicago Board of Trade most-active soybean contract fell 0.2 percent to $9.91 a bushel by 0340 GMT, after earlier dropping to the lowest since Oct. 25 at $9.88 a bushel.
The oilseed closed down 1.8 percent on Tuesday.
Corn climbed 0.3 percent to $3.50 a bushel, having ended down 1.6 percent in the previous session while wheat advanced 0.2 percent to $4.15-1/4 a bushel, having closed down 0.5 percent on Tuesday.
“We are looking at a pretty big U.S. crop,” said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank. “The supply is looking so good and that is an issue for prices. South American weather is fine, production prospects as of now look good.”
The market is positioning ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Nov. 9 supply and demand reports, which will include updated forecasts of the U.S. corn and soybean crops that are already projected as the largest on record.
After the market closed on Tuesday, commodity brokerage INTL FCStone raised its estimate of the average U.S. 2016 soybean yield to a record 52.8 bushels per acre (bpa), from 52.5 in its previous monthly report. The firm lifted its forecast for the U.S. 2016 corn yield to 175.3 bpa, from 175.2 last month.
The USDA said the U.S. soybean harvest was 87 percent complete by Sunday, ahead of the five-year average of 85 percent, and the corn harvest was 75 percent complete, in line with the five-year average.
In the wheat market, frost damage across Australia’s largest wheat-producing state, Western Australia, has destroyed more than 15 percent of the total grain crop, Cooperative Bulk Handling Ltd, the country’s biggest grain exporter, said on Tuesday.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean and wheat futures contracts on Tuesday.
