(Bloomberg) – Soybeans advanced for a third day as dry weather in the Midwest curbed crop yields, boosting speculation the U.S. Department of Agriculture will lower its production estimate in the world’s biggest grower.
The contract for November delivery gained as much as 1.2 percent to $13.84 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and was at $13.745 by 10:09 a.m. in Singapore. Prices rose for a fifth week in the five days to Sept. 6, the best run since May.
Futures surged 13 percent last month as hot weather in the Midwest harmed crops. Significant rain isn’t expected in the region in the next 10 days with dryness remaining widespread across the central and western Midwest, especially in western Illinois, northern Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, curbing yield potential, MDA Information Systems LLC said Sept. 6. The U.S. soybean harvest may be 3.13 billion bushels, 3.7 percent below the USDA’s August estimate, a Bloomberg survey shows.
“The USDA is the focus this week and we’re expecting another downgrade to U.S. soybean production prospects,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said by phone today. There’s been a deterioration “in U.S. seasonal conditions in the last couple of months and a subsequent decline in crop conditions and therefore yield prospects,” he said from Sydney.
The USDA updates its forecasts on Sept. 12.
Corn for December delivery fell 0.5 percent to $4.66 a bushel after gaining and losing 0.6 percent. Wheat for delivery in December declined 0.4 percent to $6.4525 a bushel, erasing a 0.6 percent advance.
