Soya falls three percent

US soya futures fell almost 3 percent on Monday, the biggest one-day decline in four months as the dollar gained on worries about the euro zone debt crisis and as more-than-expected rainfall nursed South America's crop back to health. Corn also fell, dropping for the first time in seven trading sessions, posting its biggest one-day drop in over a week.
Wheat eased for the second session in a row on the firm dollar and spillover selling from tumbling soya but found underpinning from concerns about potential winterkill in the Black Sea region because of bitter cold temperatures. CBOT March soyabeans were down 33-3/4 cents at $11.85-1/4 per bushel, March corn was down 10 at $6.31-3/4 and March wheat was down 2-1/2 at $6.44-3/4. Traders and analysts said there was a one-two punch for grains and soyabeans on Monday with the firm dollar and falling equities lending pressure while soya came under more weight from a shift to much better crop prospects in Argentina and Brazil, two global soya producing giants.
"The weather has improved in South America, much better crop prospects there and prices are under pressure from the uncertainty in Europe," said Mark Schultz, analyst for Northstar Commodity Investment's Co. The dollar rose nearly a half percentage point and the Dow stock index eased on Monday as concerns grew about the state of Europe's finances while Greece and Germany sparred over budget measures for Athens.
Bank stocks led the way lower after a report that Germany was pushing for Greece to give up control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second bailout package. "The EU debt crisis remains the biggest macro driver," said Erin Fitzpatrick of Rabobank. Also, "markets are trading on South American weather, and the forecast for the next 14 days has been improved." Dry weather has been stressing soyabean and corn crops in Argentina and southern Brazil but rains began falling over the past week and were expected to continue this week.
"It rained in almost all of the grain belt and there were downpours that delivered between 50 millimiters to 70 millimeters on average," said Leonardo De Benedictis, a weather analyst at the private Clima Campo consultancy in Buenos Aires. Rains should continue over the coming days and the high temperatures that exacerbated the impact of the La Nina weather phenomenon should ease. Argentina's corn crop has been damaged beyond repair by hot and dry weather but the rains now are just in time for the soyabean crop, which is in its critical pod-setting stage of development.