Chicago wheat and soyabean futures fell sharply on Friday in a technical sell-off following US government data on Thursday that raised the outlook for end-of-season stockpiles of the crops, traders said.
Wheat and soya each dropped 2 percent or more while corn futures were down about 0.8 percent, holding near Thursday's seven-month high on the Chicago Board of Trade. Forecasts for small amounts of rain in Argentina added to bearish sentiment even as the precipitation might be too late to help some soya and corn fields in the South American nation. Dry conditions in Argentina and in the southern US Plains winter wheat belt helped propel prices for all three commodities to multimonth highs this month.
CBOT May wheat was down 11-3/4 cents to $4.87-1/2 per bushel, a 1-1/2 week low. CBOT May soyabeans fell 21-1/4 cents to $10.42-3/4 per bushel and CBOT May corn eased 3-1/4 cents to $3.90-1/4 as of 12:32 pm CST (1832 GMT). The US Department of Agriculture in a monthly supply and demand report on Thursday cut projected US corn stocks by more than expected on the back of healthy exports and ethanol demand.
The USDA raised its outlook for global wheat inventory at the end of 2017/18 to a new record. High world supplies were countering support from drought in parts of the Plains. The USDA data also dampened the soyabean market as an upward revision to US stocks, reflecting, as in wheat, a reduction in US exports. That took the focus away from a sharp cut to forecast soyabean production in drought-hit Argentina.
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