Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean futures fell on Monday on shaky demand, technical trading and expectations of strong seeding progress and crop condition for corn later in the day, traders said.
Chicago wheat slipped during a choppy trading session driven by worries over damaged Russian crops and no expectations of relief, traders said.
Soybeans Sv1 settled down 20-1/2 cents to $11.84-1/2 per bushel after touching $11.91 earlier, the weakest level since May 2. Corn Cv1 settled down 2-3/4 cents to close at $4.43-1/2 per bushel.
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“Demand is so-so at best, and without any weather issues, prices are going to get lower until you get to price level low enough to stimulate low demand,” Mark Soderberg, analyst at ADM Investor Services, said.
After markets closed, the U.S. Agriculture Department said corn was 91 per cent planted as of Sunday, in line with analyst estimates, and 75 per cent of U.S. corn was rated in good to excellent condition, beating the average analyst estimate.
Soybeans were 78 per cent planted, landing toward the lower end of analyst estimates.
The Chicago Board of Trade’s most active wheat contract Wv1 slipped 5-3/4 cents to settle at $6.72-3/4 a bushel. It had hit a 10-month high of $7.20 on Tuesday, but fell late last week.
“Wheat is just trading Black Sea weather right now,” Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading, said.
Slashed estimates for Russian grain exports and a potential declaration of a state of emergency re-ignited concerns over the top wheat-growing nation’s crop, traders said.
Funds were also adjusting positions near the beginning of the month, traders said.
Russia may declare a nationwide emergency and Russian grain exports will fall to 60 million tons in the upcoming season from 70 million tons this season after a cold spell in some regions, Russian government officials said on Friday.
—Additional reporting for Reuters by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore
