Wheat edges lower, crop condition caps losses
Category: Grains
(Reuters) – U.S. wheat futures edged lower on Tuesday on forecasts for showers later this week, although losses were capped as crop conditions across key growing states worsened, adding to concerns over potential production shortfalls.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Chicago Board Of Trade May wheat fell 0.1 percent to $6.75-1/2 a bushel, having closed up 1.0 percent on Monday.
* May soybeans little changed at $14.63-1/2 a bushel, having slid 0.7 percent on Monday.
* May corn fell 0.1 percent to $4.98-3/4 a bushel, having closed down 0.5 percent in the previous session, but remains not far off recent seven-month highs.
* Wheat conditions in Kansas, the largest U.S. producer, have fallen for the fourth week in a row as dry soil and lack of rain continued to take a toll, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported on Monday.
* In Kansas, 29 percent of the crop was rated in good to excellent condition, down from 32 percent a week earlier, the Kansas field office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said.
* USDA delayed its first weekly crop-progress report of 2014 until Thursday, a report that analysts expected to show the winter wheat crop’s good-to-excellent rating at roughly 35 to 40 percent, compared with 62 percent in late November, and 36 percent a year ago.
* In Oklahoma, 15 percent of the winter wheat was rated good to excellent, down from 17 percent a week ago. The amount rated poor to very poor rose to 48 percent from 44 percent the previous week.
* Weekend rains in the U.S. Plains breadbasket were lighter than expected, and there were doubts that an upcoming storm system would bring significant relief to the crops
* Private exporters reported the sale of 120,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China for delivery in the 2014/15 marketing year, which will start on Sept. 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
MARKET NEWS
* The euro held on to gains early on Tuesday, having risen broadly after the European Central Bank again played down the need for any immediate policy action.
* U.S. oil futures dipped below $100 on Monday, falling more than a dollar a barrel after stock markets tumbled, with Brent crude prices losing even more on the prospect of additional supplies from Libya.
* U.S. stocks fell on Monday with the S&P 500 posting its biggest three-day drop in two months, as investors bid down Internet stocks and rotated into defensive names to protect against further declines.
