(AgWeek) – U.S. soybean futures fell on Thursday, with the most-active March contract down 1.6 percent, the largest drop for soybeans in more than a month, after exporters canceled U.S. soybean sales to China.
At the Chicago Board of Trade as of 12:30 p.m. CST (1830 GMT), March wheat was down 4-1/4 cents at $4.72-1/4 per bushel, after hitting a one-month high earlier this week.
March corn was down 3-1/4 cents at $3.66 per bushel, while March soybeans were down 13 cents at $8.70 a bushel.
“As the rest of the commodity sector starts to gain a little bit of momentum with crude up a little bit, grains aren’t participating,” said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for INTL FCStone.
Russia’s news to lift or reduce export taxes on wheat and China cancelling the U.S. exports of soybeans is fuelling negativity in the market, analysts said.
“The bottom line is that we’re probably going to struggle to hit our export targets,” Suderman said.
Chinese companies have ordered more than 20 cargoes, equivalent to 1.2 million tons of corn, mostly from Ukraine, for shipment in the first quarter, a government think tank said on Thursday.
In Argentina, a drought has caused corn crop losses in some areas despite the El Nino weather phenomenon which usually triggers heavy rains in South America, an analyst at the country’s main grains exchange said. But severe harvest shortfalls were not expected.
“Over the next 10 days, very little rainfall is expected across eastern Argentina, which will allow dryness to increase across Entre Rios (province) and northeastern Buenos Aires (province, which includes the capital city of the same name) Significant head is not expected, however, which will help to limit crop stress,” MDA Weather Services said in a note to clients.
