CHICAGO: US soybean and corn futures rose Tuesday on bargain hunting following Monday’s sharp declines, and worries about wet forecasts slowing planting in portions of the northern Midwest, analysts said.
US wheat futures finished mixed, with Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures rising while K.C. hard red winter wheat futures eased.
CBOT July soybeans settled up 8-3/4 cents at $10.20-1/4 per bushel and July corn ended up 2-1/2 cents at $4.03-1/4 a bushel. CBOT July wheat rose 3 cents at $5.14-1/2 a bushel while K.C. July wheat ended down 1-1/4 cents at $5.38-1/4.
Soybeans firmed a day after the July contract fell to $10.10-3/4, a one-month low, while July corn bounced after dipping below the $4 mark for the first time in a week.
Planting weather remained a key issue. The US Department of Agriculture late Monday said that the US soybean crop was 15 percent seeded, ahead of the five-year average of 14 percent. The corn crop was 39 percent planted, behind the five-year average of 44 percent.
However, progress lagged in key northern states such as Minnesota and North Dakota, and weather forecasts called for rains in that region this week that should stall field work.
“The models were a little wetter up north, where they are furthest behind. That’s an important area, with a lot of acres,” said Jim Gerlach, president of Indiana-based A/C Trading.
In Argentina, heavy rains have complicated the harvest of a soybean crop that has already been slashed by drought.
Also, traders were adjusting positions ahead of the USDA’s monthly supply/demand report on Thursday, which will include the government’s first official forecasts for the 2018-19 crop year.
“Thursday’s report is going to highlight the fact that corn stocks, both in the US and globally, are going to fall quite dramatically this year,” Gerlach said.
The average forecast of US 2018-19 corn ending stocks among analysts surveyed by Reuters was 1.628 billion bushels, compared with the USDA’s latest projection of 2.182 billion bushels at the end of 2017-18.
Wheat futures firmed on technical buying and short-covering, with the CBOT July contract turning higher after falling to a one-week low of $5.06-1/4.
Commodity funds hold a net short position in CBOT wheat, leaving the market prone to bouts of short-covering.
The USDA late Monday rated 34 percent of the US winter wheat crop in good-to-excellent condition, up from 33 percent last week.
Source: Brecorder
