US spring wheat futures set fresh 2-1/2-year highs on Tuesday as a further decline in spring wheat condition ratings surprised traders and coincided with concern about damage to French wheat from a heat wave. But corn and soyabean futures fell on improving US crop weather, coupled with broad weakness in other commodities including crude oil. The 19-market Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index was down 1 percent and hit its lowest since April 2016.
As of 12:40 pm CDT (1740 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade July wheat was up 3-1/2 cents at $4.70-1/2 a bushel and Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) July spring wheat was up 9-3/4 cents at $6.49-1/4 after reaching $6.57, the highest spot price on a continuous chart since December 2014. CBOT July corn was down 4-3/4 cents at $3.70-1/2 a bushel after dipping to $3.69-1/4, its lowest since June 1. July soyabeans were down 8-1/4 cents at $9.29-1/2 a bushel.
Spring wheat surged after the US Department of Agriculture late on Monday rated 41 percent of the US spring wheat crop as good to excellent, down from 45 percent a week earlier. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected an improvement. Additional support stemmed from concerns about a heat wave damaging crops in France. But December milling wheat on the Paris-based Euronext exchange closed lower as traders booked profits after prices hit their highest in nearly a year. CBOT corn and soyabeans sagged on improving weather in the Midwest crop belt, despite weekly USDA crop ratings that fell just below trade expectations. The USDA late Monday rated 67 percent of the US corn and soyabean crops in good to excellent condition. The corn figure was steady with the previous week while the soyabean figure was up 1 percentage point.
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