(Reuters) – Chicago soybean futures slid for a second session on Wednesday while corn edged up after closing lower the previous day, with easing concerns over planting delays in the U.S. grain belt adding pressure to grains markets.
Wheat slid for a third straight session with the stable condition of the U.S. hard red winter crop – despite late spring snow storms – pulling the market lower.
The Chicago Board Of Trade most-active soybean contract lost 0.4 percent to $9.44-1/2 a bushel by 0322 GMT, having closed down 0.9 percent on Tuesday.
Corn rose 0.1 percent to $3.69-3/4 a bushel, having closed down 1.5 percent in the previous session. Wheat fell 0.2 percent to $4.28-3/4 a bushel, having closed down 1.1 percent on Tuesday.
“The flood situation in not so severe. Farmers in the U.S.
Midwest are able to plant crops as we can see from the USDA data,” said Kaname Gokon from Tokyo brokerage Okato Shoji. That has lent a bearish tone to corn and soybeans, he said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said late on Monday that the U.S. corn crop was 84 percent planted, slightly behind an average of trade expectations but close to the five-year average of 85 percent.
The USDA estimated U.S. soybean plantings were 53 percent complete, just above the five-year average of 52 percent.
Soybean futures drew underlying support from a USDA announcement on Tuesday that private exporters sold 126,000 tonnes of old-crop U.S. soybeans to unknown destinations.
The market awaits the USDA’s first corn condition ratings for the season, which the government expects to release in its next weekly crop progress report on May 30.
The wheat market extended losses after the USDA rated 52 percent of the U.S. winter wheat crop as good to excellent, up from 51 percent a week earlier.
Analysts on average had expected a decline, given wet conditions in the southern Plains and Midwest that raised concerns about yield prospects and grain quality.
Still, there could be support for oilseed prices with adverse weather delaying planting in Canada.
Heavy rain forecast for the soggiest parts of the Canadian Prairies this week is likely to further delay plantings in the world’s biggest canola exporting country, meteorologists say.
The rain, forecast to hit the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, would be the latest blow to farmers who could not harvest all of their canola and wheat last autumn due to wet conditions that stretched into spring.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean and wheat futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said. They were also net sellers of soymeal and soyoil futures.
