Chicago | Reuters — U.S. benchmark soybean futures fell below US$13 a bushel on Thursday for the first time in a month while corn and wheat futures held near multi-year lows on downbeat weekly export sales, an expanding U.S. harvest and economic worries, analysts said.
Chicago Board of Trade November soybeans settled down 26-1/4 cents at $12.93-3/4 a bushel after hitting $12.93, the contract’s lowest since Aug. 8 (all figures US$).
CBOT December corn ended down seven cents at $4.75-1/4 a bushel, and December wheat finished down 13 cents at $5.75-3/4.
Read Also
U.S. grains: Wheat futures rise on supply snags in top-exporter Russia
U.S. wheat futures closed higher on Thursday on concerns over the limited availability of supplies for export in Russia, analysts said.
Soybean futures extended early declines after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported U.S. soy export sales in the week to Sept. 14 at 434,100 metric tonnes, below a range of trade expectations. Weekly corn sales of 566,900 tonnes fell near the low end of expectations.
Confirmation by USDA of daily private sales of 137,160 tonnes of U.S. corn to Mexico did little to lift the mood.
Export demand for U.S. grains has lagged amid plentiful supplies of both crops from Brazil, a firm dollar and low water on the Mississippi River that has slowed the movement of barges to Gulf export terminals.
The export woes have overshadowed uncertainty about the size of drought-hit U.S. crops as combines start to roll in the heart of the Midwest.
“My bias is still that we will see both USDA’s corn and soybean yields slide lower going forward, but that really doesn’t matter to the market right now when export demand remains so weak,” Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at StoneX, wrote in a client note.
Meanwhile the U.S. dollar hit a six-month high after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled policy would remain restrictive for longer, further clouding U.S. grain export prospects.
“The Fed’s hawkish ‘higher for longer’ interest rate projections are negatively impacting risk assets and commodity markets via the strong dollar,” Peak Trading Research wrote in a note.
In other news, the International Grains Council (IGC) in a monthly update raised its 2023-24 global corn crop forecast by one million metric tonnes, to 1.222 billion.
However, the IGC trimmed its 2023-24 world wheat crop outlook by one million tonnes, to 783 million, with downgrades for Australia, Canada and Argentina.
Australia’s crop has struggled with hot and dry weather this month at a crucial period for crop development.
— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris, Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Peter Hobson in Canberra.
