Wheat hits near 3-week low on widely watched crop tour findings

(Reuters) – U.S. wheat dipped to a near three-week low on Thursday as a widely watched crop tour pegged yields in a key producing region well above average levels, reinforcing expectations of ample global supplies.

FUNDAMENTALS
The most active soybean futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade rose 0.34 percent to $10.37-1/2 a bushel, having firmed 0.39 percent on Wednesday.
The most active corn futures rose 0.13 percent to $3.77-1/4 a bushel, having earlier hit a session low of $3.76 a bushel – the lowest since April 25. Corn closed down 0.79 percent in the previous session.
The most active wheat futures fell to a low of $4.67-1/2 a bushel – the lowest since April 15, before retracing its losses to be little changed at $4.71 a bushel. Wheat closed near unchanged on Wednesday.  Crop scouts on the second day of the annual three-day tour of Kansas hard red winter wheat fields projected an average yield of 49.3 bushels per acre in the southwestern portion of the state, up from tour findings of 34.5 bushels a year ago.
Winter wheat prospects in southwest Kansas are above average as recent rains benefited crops after much drier early-season growing conditions, scouts on an annual crop tour said on Wednesday.
The scouts made their biggest yield projection for northern Kansas since 2012 following surveys of that part of the state on Tuesday.
Heavy El Niño rains that lashed Argentina’s pampas in April have already wiped out 785,000 hectares of this year’s soycrop, and another 700,000 are in danger, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Wednesday.

MARKET NEWS
The yen showed signs of fatigue early on Thursday having taken a step back from recent peaks, while the greenback firmed broadly on some optimism the U.S. economy would bounce back after nearly stalling in the first quarter.
Oil prices jumped by more than one percent in early trading on Thursday as a huge wildfire in Canada disrupted its oil sands production, while escalating fighting in Libya threatened the North African nation’s output.
U.S. stocks declined for a second day on Wednesday, weighed down by tepid data on private sector U.S. jobs and a retreat in biotech shares.