SINGAPORE: US corn futures edged higher on Friday but the market is on track for its biggest weekly loss in eight months, weighed down by a US government forecast of 2016 planted acreage well above market expectations.
Soybeans climbed to their highest since mid-October, rising for a fifth consecutive week with lower-than-expected acreage buoying prices.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade is down almost 5 percent this week, biggest weekly loss since the end of July.
Soybeans are up 0.6 percent this week, for a fifth consecutive week of gains while wheat has added nearly 2 percent, its first weekly rise in three.
Soybeans hit an intraday high of $9.18 a bushel, the highest since mid-October.
"New-corn crop planting estimate is bearish for prices, the USDA estimate is more than what everyone expected," said Kaname Gokon at the Okato Shoji brokerage in Tokyo. "They are looking at corn acreage more than last year."
A US Department of Agriculture report showed US farmers are planning to boost corn seedings by 6.4 percent this year to 93.601 million acres (37.88 million hectares), which would be the third-highest level since 1944.
Commodity funds were heavy net sellers in CBOT corn contracts on Thursday, with estimates in a wide range following high-volume trade after the release of the USDA planting intentions figure, traders said.
Trader estimates of fund selling in corn ranged widely from 25,000 to 65,000 contracts.
The report was supportive for soybean prices. Soybean seedings were seen at 82.236 million acres, which would be the third-highest ever, but below the average trade forecast.
However, analysts said final acreage would probably shift, due to firmer soybean prices, since the USDA's survey was concluded earlier last month, and as some farmers in flooded areas of the South may replant corn fields with soybeans.
The USDA also pegged March 1 corn stocks at 7.808 billion bushels, above the average analyst estimate of 7.801 billion and the largest for the quarter since 1987.
Soybean stocks rose to 1.531 billion bushels, below trade expectations for 1.556 billion, while wheat stocks rose to 1.372 billion bushels, compared with forecasts for 1.356 billion.
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