SINGAPORE, Aug 6: Chicago corn slid around 1 percent on Tuesday to its lowest since late 2010 on an improvement in the condition of the U.S. Crop, while soybeans fell for the eighth of 11 sessions.
Wheat edged down, trading near Monday’s one-year low on pressure from the drop in corn prices.
Condition ratings for U.S. Corn and soybeans edged higher in the latest week, spurred by improving crop health in Illinois, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed.
The USDA said that good-to-excellent ratings, the highest ranking, for both corn and soybeans rose 1 percentage point to 64 percent as of August 4, beating market forecasts.
Analysts were expecting good-to-excellent ratings of 63 percent for both corn and soybeans, according to the average of 10 estimates in a Reuters poll.
‘Informa came out with a forecast of a large crop. The weather has been encouraging and the crop condition report was good, so there is bearish sentiment around (on prices),’ said Brett Cooper, senior markets manager at INTL FCStone Australia.
Private crop forecaster Informa Economics trimmed its estimate for corn production by 0.8 percent to 14.14 billion bushels. That would still be a record crop and tops the USDA’s latest forecast for 13.95 billion bushels.
Chicago Board of Trade new-crop December corn fell more than 1 percent to $4.55 a bushel, the lowest since late 2010. November soybeans eased 0.4 percent to $11.78-1/4 a bushel, trading near last session’s 14-month low.
Spot-month wheat lost 0.4 percent to $6.42-1/2 a bushel, not far from Monday’s one-year low of $6.41-1/2 a bushel.
The harvest is expected to replenish historically low supplies of corn and soy after the worst U.S. Drought in more than 50 years devastated output last year.
Importers and domestic corn buyers are delaying large purchases ahead of the autumn harvest because they expect prices to drop further, traders and analysts said.
Informa lowered its estimate for soybean production 3.3 percent to 3.266 billion bushels, keeping it below USDA’s estimate for 3.42 billion. The harvest would still be massive, but smaller than traders anticipated.
Soybean prices are under pressure from China’s plans to release 500,000 tonnes of soybeans from its reserves this week which could reduce its demand for imported beans. But Chinese prices were likely to be more expensive than imported soy, some traders said.
In the wheat market, investors are waiting for the results of an Egyptian tender for price direction.
Egypt’s main wheat-buying agency set a tender on Monday to buy an unspecified amount of wheat from global suppliers for shipment from Sept. 21-30.
It is seeking cargoes of soft and/or milling wheat from the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Poland, Argentina, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Romania.
Australian wheat was offered at a lowest price of $355.30 a tonne in a tender from Iraq’s state grain board to purchase at least 50,000 tonnes.
Prices at 0215 GMT
Contract Last Change Pct chg MA 30 RSI
CBOT wheat 642.50 -2.75 -0.43% 865.83 32
CBOT corn 456.00 -4.50 -0.98% 757.11 18
CBOT soy 1178.25 -5.00 -0.42% 1569.82 28
CBOT rice $15.68 -$0.08 -0.51% $15.49 46
WTI crude $106.26 -$0.30 -0.28% $89.52 56
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.326 $0.097
USD/AUD 0.893 -0.163
Most active contracts
Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel. Rice: USD per hundredweight
RSI 14, exponential
(agencies)
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