Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade wheat fell below US$5 a bushel to its lowest in nearly a month on Tuesday, under continued pressure from forecasts of drought-relieving showers in the U.S. grain belt.
Soybeans rallied from recent multimonth lows on bargain buying, and corn also firmed.
At the CBOT, May wheat settled 5-1/4 cents lower at $4.97 per bushel (all figures US$). May soybeans rose 11-1/2 cents at $9.60-1/4 a bushel and May corn ended up three cents at $3.73-1/2 a bushel.
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Wheat fell on forecasts for rains in the southern Plains, coupled with poor export demand. The Commodity Weather Group projected total rainfall through Saturday in the U.S. hard red winter wheat belt at one to five centimetres, with local accumulations up to 11 cm.
The storms would follow a decline in weekly crop ratings amid dry conditions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) late Monday rated 42 per cent of U.S. winter wheat as good to excellent, down from 44 per cent a week earlier.
But while U.S. yield potential appeared to be improving, export prospects remain poor.
“Without a frost, we have too much wheat. That’s the problem,” said Gordy Linn, president of the Linn Group, a Chicago brokerage. “You are going to bring wheat more into the feed realm in the States than what we have seen,” Linn added.
CBOT soybeans rose roughly one per cent, rebounding after nearing a six-month low. Analysts cited end-user buying as spot soymeal futures approached $300 a ton for the first time since October.
Rains slowing Argentina’s soy harvest added support.
But forecasts for record-large global soybean stocks by Sept. 1 capped gains, along with concerns about the finding of bird flu in a U.S. commercial chicken operation.
If the flu spreads, it could curb demand for soymeal, a common poultry feed ingredient.
Corn rallied on technical buying after a six-session slide, buoyed in part by a slow start to U.S. planting. USDA said farmers had seeded two per cent of the U.S. crop by Sunday, behind the five-year average of five per cent.
“We have seen in the last few years that growers are good at catching up with any planting delays relatively quickly,” said Graydon Chong, senior grains analyst with Rabobank. “Rain will be beneficial for the crop development.”
— Julie Ingwersen is a Reuters correspondent covering grain markets from Chicago. Additional reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
