(Reuters) – U.S. soybeans edged lower on Thursday as harvest pressure added a bearish tone to a muted market, with traders aiming to square positions ahead of a U.S. Department of Agriculture report that could show season-end stocks of corn and beans at an 8-year low.
Chicago Board of Trade soybeans fell 0.13 percent to $15.71 a bushel, having ended the previous session down 2.39 percent.
December corn fell 0.34 percent to $7.22-1/4 a bushel, having hit a session low of $7.21 a bushel, the lowest level since July 12. Corn finished Wednesday down 2.56 percent.
“With corn planted early in the season in the United States and the record pace of harvest for corn and soybeans, it is pushing prices lower,” Abah Ofon, commodities analysts at Standard Chartered said.
December wheat rose 0.09 percent to $8.70 a bushel, having closed down 1.95 percent in the previous session.
“We are seeing movements of about 2 cents either way, the market is waiting for the USDA report,” said Andrew Woodhouse, a grains analysts at Advance Trading Australasia.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect U.S. corn and soybean stocks as of Sept. 1 to be at the lowest in eight years at the end of the season that runs from September 2011 to August 2012.
The grains complex recorded sharp losses on Wednesday when the euro zone debt crisis weighed on the market, shifting the focus away from fundamentals.
Analysts also cited technical selling as contributing to the large sell-off, with the market readying for the USDA report.
Commodity funds sold an estimated net 15,000 contracts of Chicago Board of Trade corn futures on Wednesday, trade sources said.
EGYPT SALE HINTS AT RUSSIAN PULL-BACK
Wheat fell for the fourth straight session following strong gains on September 21, when Russia said it would levy curbs on exports if domestic prices continued to rise, with analysts hinting the world’s No.4 largest exporter may already have pulled back.
Egypt’s state grains buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), bought 300,000 tonnes of Romanian and French wheat at its snap tender. There were no wheat purchases from Russia, which has been a major supplier to GASC the past month.
The absence of Russian wheat sales could reinforce speculation that one of the world’s top wheat exporters was running out of supplies for export after a drought slashed its harvest this year.
