Friday, 27 March 2015 10:27
SYDNEY: US wheat on Friday held on to most of its losses from the previous session, when it posted its biggest daily drop in more than eight months, and was set to finish the week down 5.5 percent amid favourable weather forecasts and a firm dollar.
Soybeans fell for a fourth day, hurt by expectations of a bumper South American crop, but corn gained for a fifth session out of six as higher crude oil prices raised hopes for a rise in demand for grain-based fuel ethanol.
Chicago Board of Trade front-month wheat rose 0.25 percent to $ 5.00-1/2 a bushel, after ending down 3.8 percent on Thursday, its biggest one-day fall since July 2014. Wheat is on course to post its first weekly loss in three weeks.
“The market is eyeing the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on the 31st, but until then, it is all about weather,” said Graydon Chong, senior grains analyst, Rabobank.
Crop-friendly rains in wheat growing regions in the southern US Plains and Ohio River Valley dragged on prices. But losses were limited as the showers missed parched areas of Kansas and Oklahoma. Precipitation has been so heavy in the Ohio River Valley there could be risks of fungal diseases that hurt last year’s soft red winter wheat crop, meteorologists said.
Wheat also came under pressure due to the dollar that was trading broadly higher early in Asia on Friday, making commodities priced in the greenback less attractive.
Fresh evidence of wheat’s competitive disadvantage came in the USDA’s weekly export sales report showing the smallest wheat exports since June.
USDA next week will release its annual prospective plantings and quarterly stocks reports, which likely will show US farmers reducing corn sowings and in favour of better earnings in soybeans, a Reuters poll showed.
Corn was up 0.13 percent at $ 3.91-3/4 a bushel. It is up almost 2 percent this week, tracking gains in crude oil prices . It ended down 0.95 percent on Thursday.
Soybeans fell 0.23 percent to $ 9.72-1/4 a bushel, having closed down 0.43 percent in the previous session.
The oilseed is little changed for the week, as a bumper South American crop enters the market.
Argentina’s waterlogged soy lands will get much-needed sun over the 10 days ahead, firming soils and allowing growers to drive harvesting combines into fields turned to mud by heavy early-March storms, meteorologists said.
Copyright Reuters, 2015
