Chicago wheat, corn and soyabean futures were mostly lower on Wednesday as investors squared up their positions ahead of a monthly US Department of Agriculture report due on Thursday, traders said. Prices for each crop have cooled from last week's multi-month highs amid dry growing conditions for US wheat and Argentine corn and soyabeans.
The USDA in its supply and demand report was expected to forecast larger US wheat ending stocks, due in part to weak export demand, and slightly smaller domestic stockpiles of corn, according to Reuters analyst polls. "Traders are cautious and less busy close to the USDA report tomorrow, especially after the rally observed these last weeks in Chicago," consultancy Agritel said in a note.
Chicago Board of Trade May wheat was down 3 cents to $5.04 per bushel at 10:54 a.m. CST (1654 GMT), off its nearly eight-month high of $5.18-1/2 from Friday. CBOT May soyabeans were 6-1/4 cents lower at $10.68-1/2 per bushel. Some deferred soyabean contracts, including November soya futures, earlier climbed to life-of-contract highs before turning lower.
CBOT May corn was unchanged at $3.88-1/4. Small amounts of precipitation were forecast in parts of Argentina during the next two weeks, according to the Commodity Weather Group. But the showers may be too late to help some corn and soya fields. Adding to the subdued mood in commodity and equity markets was growing concern about a global trade war after the resignation of a free trade advocate from the staff of US President Donald Trump.
Comments
Comments are closed.