GRAINS-Soybeans fall for 3rd day, US crop tour finds impressive yields
Category: Grains
(Reuters) – Chicago soybean futures slid for a third consecutive session on Thursday to their lowest since mid-August, pressured as a widely watched crop tour reported bumper crop prospects across the U.S. Midwest.
Corn dropped for a fourth session in a row, although losses were limited by strong demand, while wheat rose from a one-week low touched on Wednesday.
The Chicago Board of Trade most-active soybean contract had given up as much as 1.2 percent to $9.93-1/4 a bushel by 0237 GMT – its weakest since Aug. 15.
Corn eased 0.1 percent to $3.36 bushel, while wheat added 0.2 percent to $4.27-1/4 a bushel after dropping to its lowest since Aug. 17 on Wednesday.
“Soybean prices had been pushed higher because of Chinese demand for U.S. shipments, but the supply picture is very favourable,” said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.
“Global fundamentals for supplies are looking great, there are prospects of very high U.S. yields.”
Scouts on the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour are finding strong yield potential for soybeans, but production prospects for corn look mixed.
Soybean and corn fields across central Illinois look to be heading for impressive harvests in coming weeks, but the crops could yield slightly less than the record-large hauls seen in the last few years.
In Nebraska, corn yield potential was seen down nearly 4 percent from 2015, with adverse conditions during the growing season expected to limit production.
Corn won additional support from a USDA report that said private exporters sold 101,600 tonnes of U.S. corn to unknown destinations for 2016/17 delivery.
Wheat gained on bargain-buying after coming under pressure from expectations of Canada’s second-largest wheat crop in 25 years.
Analyst UkrAgroConsult has raised its forecast for Ukraine’s 2016 grain harvest to 62.7 million tonnes, 1.7 million tonnes higher than a month earlier, it said on Tuesday.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT soybean, corn and wheat futures contracts on Wednesday, traders said.
Trader estimates of net fund selling in soybeans ranged from 2,000 to 10,000 contracts, in corn from 2,000 to 5,000 contracts and in wheat from zero to 2,500 contracts.
