Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures climbed more than one per cent on Tuesday on concerns that scorching weather conditions in South America were taking a toll on crops, while the market also drew support from a fresh round of private sales by U.S. exporters.
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat also rose more than two per cent, recovering from contract lows on Monday while corn declined on burdensome supplies.
CBOT January soybeans jumped 16-3/4 cents to close at $13.46-1/2 per bushel (all figures US$). Soybeans were supported by drought conditions in Brazil that are threatening crops as a recent bout of rains has not diminished ongoing concerns over the hot and arid weather in key growing areas.
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“For soybeans, it may be oversold a little bit and weather-related (with) uncertainty in the northern areas of Brazil and Argentina,” said Bill Lapp of Advanced Economic Solutions.
Brazilian farmers are expected to reap 155 million metric tonnes of soybeans in the 2023-24 cycle, 10 million below initial expectations, after a drought affected Mato Grosso state farmers who planted their crop early, a consultant at MB Agro said on Tuesday. The forecast was below the 163 million tonnes expected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Soybeans were also supported by USDA’s confirmation that exporters sold 123,300 tonnes of the crop to unknown destinations for 2023-24 delivery.
Meanwhile, actively traded March corn fell 1-3/4 cents to $4.73-1/2 a bushel. During trading, March corn fell to a contract low of $4.71 a bushel. The market remained capped by the arrival of a bumper U.S. harvest.
CBOT March wheat finished up 11 cents at $5.72 per bushel after earlier coming within a penny of the prior day’s contract low.
USDA on Monday rated 50 per cent of the U.S. winter wheat crop in good-to-excellent condition, up two percentage points from last week and a bigger improvement than most analysts expected.
— Reporting for Reuters by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
