US soyabean and corn futures fell on Thursday as funds liquidated long positions on improving US weather forecasts and broad weakness in commodity and equities markets, analysts said. Wheat followed the lower trend, pressured by the expanding US winter wheat harvest and plentiful world stockpiles. At the Chicago Board of Trade as of 11:22 am CDT (1622 GMT), July soyabeans were down 24 cents at $11.32 per bushel. July corn fell 6 cents at $4.23 a bushel and July wheat was off 3 cents at $4.74-1/2 a bushel.
July soyabeans hit a near two-week low while July corn touched its lowest since June 10 as concerns eased about pockets of dryness in the Midwest crop belt. "The market is shedding a bit of that weather premium that we added late last week and early this week," said Ted Seifried, chief market strategist for Zaner Ag Hedge.
"We could still hold on to a bit of the heat, but the vast majority of the growing area is looking at normal to above-normal temperatures, and with that, it signals a return to more normal weather," Seifried said. Even after a warm week in the Corn Belt, strong US crop ratings and subsoil moisture reserves have mitigated concerns about dryness. Also, it's still early in the growing season.
"It's very difficult to stress crops during the vegetative stage," said Rich Feltes, vice president for research with R.J. O'Brien. Robust weekly export sales data from the US Department of Agriculture failed to lift values. The USDA said export sales of combined old- and new-crop corn totalled more than 1 million tonnes for the sixth straight week, while soyabean sales topped trade expectations. Wheat turned higher at times on bargain-buying after the July contract dipped to a two-week low at $4.71 a bushel.
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