Chicago wheat futures tumbled nearly 3 percent on Friday, on pace for their biggest daily decline since August, after the US Department of Agriculture showed larger-than-expected US winter wheat plantings. Corn futures fell to life-of-contract lows, while soyabeans turned higher in a recovery from four-month lows in the wake of the midday USDA supply and demand data.
The government raised its estimate for US corn production due to record-large yields and trimmed its estimate for the US soyabean harvest, even as that crop remained the biggest ever. The USDA estimated 2018 winter wheat plantings at 32.608 million acres, the smallest since 1909 but above analysts' expectations for 30.100 to 32.000 million.
Chicago Board of Trade March wheat was down 12-1/2 cents at $4.20-3/4 per bushel, its lowest since Dec. 20, at 12:24 p.m. CST (1824 GMT). CBOT March corn dipped to a contract low of $3.46, down 2-3/4 cents.
CBOT March soyabeans were up 3-1/2 cents at $9.53-1/2 per bushel, rebounding from their session low of $9.44-1/2. The USDA earlier announced a sale of 320,000 tonnes of US corn to unknown destinations, the largest one-day sale of the crop since November.
China's soyabean imports in December were nearly record-large, according to Reuters calculations based on customs data. The country, the world's largest soyabean buyer, was experiencing strong demand in the run-up to next month's Lunar New Year holiday.
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