Chicago | Reuters—Chicago soybean futures took a sharp dive on Tuesday as traders worried that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would take a less than friendly view of the biofuel industry, analysts said.
Wheat futures slipped as a strengthening dollar made U.S. crops less competitive, and corn followed the weak trend.
Benchmark soybean futures Sv1 on the Chicago Board of Trade finished down 11-3/4 cents at $10.10-1/2 per bushel.
CBOT corn Cv1 settled down 1-1/2 cents at $4.28-1/2 a bushel, and wheat Wv1 fell 13-1/4 cents to settle at $5.52-1/4 per bushel.
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The U.S. dollar rose to a near five-month high against a basket of currencies, pressuring wheat futures, according to Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading. A stronger dollar tends to make U.S. exports less attractive to those holding other currencies.
“Wheat is the most sensitive to dollar movement,” said Gerlach. Because so many countries export wheat, he said, “when the dollar makes U.S. wheat more expensive, there’s always somebody else out there benefiting.”
Soybeans dropped as CBOT soyoil futures BOZ24 plunged four per cent amid concerns about Trump’s choice for EPA head, former Congressman Lee Zeldin, according to Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at StoneX.
“He does not have a track record of being a supporter of liquid biofuels and actively opposed them in the past,” said Suderman. Soyoil is the main U.S. feedstock for biodiesel fuel.
In addition, Gerlach said there were rumors that Indonesia’s biofuel mandate, which would raise the country’s biofuel blend from 35 per cent to 40 per cent, would be rolled out slower than expected, causing concern about lower demand for soyoil.
Corn was pulled down by the bearish mood for soybeans, said Gerlach, but he noted that demand for the grain remained strong, even as in the cash market, the harvest is winding down.
“I would be careful about getting too bearish on corn,” Gerlach said.
—Additional reporting by Peter Hobson in Canberra and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris
