US corn futures dropped for a fourth straight day on Thursday, hitting the lowest point since February, as favourable Midwest crop weather bolstered expectations for a bumper harvest this autumn and triggered fund selling. Soyabean prices fell 1 percent to the lowest in more than two weeks, led by deferred-month contracts after the US Department of Agriculture reported lower-than-expected new-crop export sales last week.
Wheat fell for the 19th time in 21 sessions and hit a three-month low on poor export demand and a generally favourable global crop outlook ahead of the northern hemisphere winter crop harvest.
Traders were rolling positions out of July contracts to deferred months, ahead of position rolling by a large fund expected to begin on Friday. "We're starting to see some profit taking and some position moving ahead of the roll, and we're seeing some people exit the market," said Karl Setzer, analyst with MaxYield Co-operative.
The large long position held by commodity funds in both corn and soyabeans made them susceptible to fund selling. Chicago Board of Trade July corn fell 5-1/2 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $4.50-3/4 a bushel by 11:00 a.m. CDT (1600 GMT), the contract's lowest since Feb. 14.
CBOT July soyabeans shed 16-1/4 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $14.66-1/4 a bushel. Selling accelerated as the contract broke below its 50-day moving average around $14.73-1/2. USDA on Thursday reported US old-crop corn export sales last week at the high end of trade expectations at 550,700 tonnes, but new-crop sales were below forecasts at 19,600 tonnes.
CBOT July wheat fell 6-1/2 cents, or 1.1 percent, to a three-month low of $6.08 a bushel.
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