Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean and corn futures fell on Wednesday on forecasts for improving weather in the Midwest, including rains next week that should boost crop production prospects, analysts said.
Wheat futures rose as traders awaited the outcome of Egyptian wheat purchase negotiations, as well as talks on a possible deal to boost grain exports from war-torn Ukraine.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he wants a general agreement reached between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations on a U.N.-led plan to resume Ukrainian Black Sea grain exports to be put in writing this week.
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Chicago Board of Trade November soybeans settled down 26 cents at $13.32-1/4 per bushel (all figures US$). December corn ended down 5-1/4 cents at $5.90 a bushel, while September wheat rose 7-1/4 cents to settle at $8.19-1/2 a bushel.
Soy and corn fell as traders focused on weather forecasts for the United States, where rains expected next week were seen easing some of the stress on crops from a hot spell that has scorched the southern Plains and extended into the Midwest.
“Traders are a little more optimistic that when this (high pressure) ridge shifts back and forth across the U.S., it will bring some fronts in,” said Terry Reilly, senior commodity analyst with Futures International in Chicago.
Corn drew underlying support from bullish weekly ethanol data, Reilly noted. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said weekly production of corn-based ethanol rose last week to 1.03 million barrels per day, the first increase in five weeks, and stockpiles fell slightly.
Wheat traders awaited results of wheat purchase negotiations by Egypt, the top global importer of the food grain. After the CBOT close, traders said Egypt’s state grains buyer, GASC, was believed to have bought an estimated 640,000 tonnes of wheat in direct negotiations with trading houses. The purchase mostly involved wheat from Russia and France, with some from Germany and Lithuania, traders said.
GASC on Tuesday had rejected offers in a separate tender for the same shipment periods, in which traditional supplier regions in the Black Sea and Europe were excluded, with only wheat from the United States offered.
— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.
