GRAINS-Wheat Rebounds From Near One-Month Low, Corn And Soy Flat
Category: Grains
(Reuters) – U.S. wheat edged higher on Wednesday after earlier hitting a near one-month low, though gains were curbed by easing fears of tight supplies as a result of recent dry weather.
Corn was little changed after hitting a near one-month low, while soybeans ticked up after earlier hitting a two-week trough.
The most active wheat futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade were up 0.95 percent to $4.78-1/2 a bushel at 1137 GMT, having earlier fallen to $4.73 a bushel – the lowest since June 29. Wheat closed down 3 percent on Tuesday.
Analysts said the real impact of heavy rainfall across the U.S. Midwest growing regions last weekend was still unclear.
“It remains to be seen whether yields will improve noticeably. After all, not all growing regions experienced the
rainfall, and some areas are still suffering from an acute shortage of rain,” Commerzbank said in a note, pointing to a U.S. crop tour confirming damage to a key producing region.
Spring wheat prospects are lower than last year in southern North Dakota and neighbouring sections of South Dakota and Minnesota, scouts on an annual crop tour said on Tuesday.
“However, the danger of a further widespread deterioration of the crop condition appears to have passed, at least for the time being,” Commerzbank added.
The most active soybean futures edged up 0.1 percent to $9.93-1/2 a bushel, having earlier hit a low of $9.90-1/2 a bushel – the lowest since July 14. Soybeans closed 1.7 percent on Tuesday.
“In the coming weeks, the weather forecast in the U.S. will become increasingly more important for the market,” ING Bank said in a note, stressing speculators had already switched from a net short to a net long position due to weather risk.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday afternoon that 57 percent of the U.S. soybean crop was in good to excellent condition, down from 61 percent last week. Analysts had expected a reading of 60 percent.
The most active corn futures was unchanged at $3.82-1/4 a bushel, up from a session low of $3.80-1/2 a bushel – the lowest since June 30. Corn closed down 2.2 percent in the previous session.
The corn crop was 62 percent good to excellent as of July 23, 1 percentage point worse than market forecasts, USDA said.
