US corn futures fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday on profit-taking and easing concerns about planting delays due to excessive moisture in the Midwest, analysts said. Soyabean and wheat futures also declined, with wheat pressured by better than expected weekly US condition ratings.
As of 12:24 p.m. CDT (1724 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade July corn was down 5-1/4 cents at $3.69-3/4 per bushel. July soyabeans were down 7 cents at $9.49-1/2 a bushel and July wheat was down 4-1/2 cents at $4.29-3/4 a bushel. Corn fell after the US Department of Agriculture said late on Monday that the US corn crop was 84 percent planted, slightly behind an average of trade expectations but close to the five-year average of 85 percent.
"If you look at a spring rainfall map in the Midwest, you have to be impressed (that) these planting numbers are as high as they are," said Rich Feltes, vice president for research with R.J. O'Brien. The USDA estimated that US soyabean plantings were 53 percent complete, above the five-year average of 52 percent. The CBOT July corn contract set back after reaching $3.77-1/2 on Monday, its highest level since May 2.
Traders await the USDA's first corn condition ratings for the season, which the government expects to release in its next weekly crop progress report on May 30. CBOT wheat futures declined after the USDA rated 52 percent of the US winter wheat crop as good to excellent, up from 51 percent a week earlier. Analysts on average had expected a decline, given wet conditions in the southern Plains and Midwest that raised concerns about yield prospects and grain quality.
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