Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean futures turned lower on Wednesday as markets came under pressure from expectations of a U.S. bumper crop, moderate weather in the Midwestern corn belt and sluggish oilseed demand, traders said.
Lingering concerns over the global economy and the pace of China’s soybean imports also pressured the market, with several soybean futures contracts setting new lows mid-session.
Meanwhile, traders began to shore up their positions ahead of Monday’s global supply-and-demand report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Consulting.
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“This is the most anticipated crop report I have seen in many years,” Setzer said. “Any tweaking of acreage is going to have a big impact.”
The CBOT’s most-active corn contract Cv1 ended down 4-1/2 cents at $4.00-3/4 per bushel, while soybeans Sv1 settled down 8 cents at $10.18-3/4 per bushel.
Chicago wheat futures ticked lower as U.S. export demand showed signs of easing, though uncertainty about the size and quality of the global crop helped keep a floor under prices, traders said.
Continued recovery of the U.S. dollar also weighed on futures, traders said.
CBOT’s most-active wheat contract Wv1 fell 5 cents to end at $5.38-1/4 per bushel.
This year’s soft wheat crop in France, the European Union’s biggest producer, is expected to shrink to its lowest level in 41 years at 25.17 million metric tons after heavy rain slashed both the crop area and yields, Argus Media said on Tuesday.
Market participants also said they were closely following news from Egypt’s state grains buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities, which announced a massive international tender for 3.8 million metric tons, the largest on record. Egypt typically imports most of its grain from Russia, which made up nearly 70 per cent of all its wheat imports in 2023.
—Additional reporting for Reuters by Naveen Thukral and Sybille de La Hamaide
