Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures dipped on Thursday to a new three-year low, pressured by improving South American weather, tepid U.S. export sales and heavier-than-expected contract deliveries, traders said.
Four of CBOT’s soybean contracts – including May SK24 – set new life-of-contract lows early in the session, before prices climbed higher.
Corn futures ended mixed, after a volatile day of technical trading saw both sides of unchanged, and ample domestic and global corn supplies continue to hang over the market, dealers said.
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Wheat futures were mixed, as technical trading and a spate of short-covering gave a boost to nearby contracts, traders said. But stiff competition for global export business and strength in the U.S. dollar weighed heavy on the day, traders said.
“The bottom line is that world commodity production is outpacing usage and until this changes, markets will see pressure,” said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Consulting.
Short-covering by speculative investors had helped grain markets bounce off lows in the past week, but plentiful supply in the Americas and the Black Sea region has curbed prices.
Meanwhile, broader economic data continues to give mixed signals for commodity investors, who spent some of the session digesting U.S. core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price data and consumer spending.
The most active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 settled down 4-1/2 cents at $11.40-3/4 per bushel. It earlier reached its weakest since November 2020 at $11.28-1/2, below a previous three-year low struck on Monday.
Industry association Abiove cut its estimate for Brazil’s 2024 soybean output for the second time this month to 153.8 million metric tons due to adverse weather.
But Brazilian production would still be close to last year’s record crop of around 159 million tons, and Argentina, which begins harvesting in April, expects a bumper crop.
CBOT corn Cv1 settled up 1 cent at $4.29-1/2 per bushel, while CBOT wheat Wv1 ended up 1-1/2 cents at $5.76-1/4 per bushel.
–Reporting for Reuters by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Peter Hobson in Canberra.
