Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybeans and corn extended gains on Monday to hit multi-month highs as dry and hot weather in South America stoked supply worries.
Wheat rose early in the session, bolstered by hopes for greater export demand, but ended the day down on technical trading.
Dealers said many market participants were still on vacation after the Christmas break, so relatively small trades were causing larger-than-usual price moves.
Chicago Board of Trade’s most-active soybeans settled up 30-3/4 cents to $13.71-1/2 a bushel, extending gains seen before Christmas and, at one point in mid-day trading, hitting their highest level since mid-August (all figures US$).
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Corn settled up nine cents at $6.14-3/4 per bushel, while wheat was down 10-3/4 to $8.04 a bushel.
Soybean and corn crop harvests are expected to be smaller in southern Brazil this season because fields are suffering from dryness, weather forecasters and consultancies said.
“The weather pattern over South America is static and that system is now showing that there could be problems going into Argentina,” said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities. “The question now is whether a La Nina weather pattern will continue to stress the crops.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday said 1,577,417 tonnes of U.S. soybeans were inspected for export last week, which was within the range of trade estimates.
The agency also upwardly revised the prior week’s soybean inspections total by more than 210,000 tonnes.
— P.J. Huffstutter reports on agriculture and agribusiness for Reuters from Chicago; additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Emily Chow in Beijing.
