(Reuters) – U.S. soybean futures slid for a second session on Monday as the market remained under pressure at the start of 2016 with much-needed rains boosting crops in Brazil’s top producing areas.
Wheat was largely unchanged as the market was torn between concerns over adverse weather for U.S. soft red winter wheat and abundant world supplies.
Chicago Board of Trade January soybeans had fallen 0.6 percent to $8.65-3/4 a bushel by 0304 GMT and wheat for March delivery eased a quarter of a cent to $4.69-3/4 a bushel.
March corn was down 0.1 percent at $3.58-1/4 a bushel.
Corn and soybeans each declined for a third straight year in 2015, with corn down 9.6 percent and soybeans down 14.5 percent. Wheat lost around a fifth of its value last year.
Brazil’s Mato Grosso region has received much-needed rains over the past 10 days, relieving a soybean producing area in the need of moisture.
Weekly export sales data for soybeans was bearish for prices on Thursday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported sales of U.S. soybeans in the week to Dec. 24 at 478,800 tonnes, below a range of trade estimates and a marketing year low.
“We are seeing pressure on beans as dry areas in Brazil have received some rains, things are improving for the South American crop,” said Kaname Gokon at brokerage Okato Shoji in Tokyo.
“Exports business is pretty slow for the U.S. beans at the start of the year.”
Ample global supplies of wheat, corn and soybeans are likely to limit gains in the agricultural markets.
For wheat, heavy storms have caused flooding in parts of the southern U.S. Midwest, threatening the region’s soft red winter wheat.
A swath of eastern Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and southern Illinois received 3 to 7 inches (7.5 to 18 cm) of rain with localised totals of up to 10 inches (25 cm), MDA Weather Services said in a note to clients last week.
U.S. grain farmers are scrambling to find shelter for their crops and handlers are hunting for alternative transportation routes, as floods shut waterways from Illinois to Missouri.
In news that is likely to support corn prices, India will soon ask state-run traders to import half a million tonnes of duty-free corn after a second straight drought cut output, in what would be the country’s first overseas purchase in 16 years.
