US wheat futures sagged on Tuesday, with the K.C. hard red winter wheat market hitting its lowest in nearly five months on fund-driven long liquidation and pressure from the harvest in the southern Plains, traders said. Soyabeans were also lower while corn was choppy as traders awaited key US Department of Agriculture reports due later this week.
As of 12:50 p.m. CDT (1750 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade September soft red winter wheat was down 8 cents at $4.82-1/2 per bushel and K.C. September hard red winter wheat was down 13-1/4 cents at $4.74-1/4. The spot K.C. July contract, which is nearing its delivery period, dipped to $4.54, the lowest spot price on a continuous chart since Jan. 29.
Commodity funds hold a net long position in K.C. wheat, leaving the market prone to bouts of long liquidation. Also, the US winter wheat harvest is more than halfway complete in Kansas, the biggest US producer, where farmers planted the second-smallest number of wheat acres since 1957.
The US Department of Agriculture late Monday said the US winter wheat harvest was 41 percent complete while the Kansas harvest was 52 percent finished, ahead of the state's five-year average of 32 percent. Others noted softening wheat prices in Russia, the world's top exporter, and a stronger US dollar, which tends to make US grain less competitive globally.
Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), on Tuesday bought 120,000 tonnes of Russian wheat in an international tender. CBOT soyabean futures fell about 1 percent on favorable weather in the US Midwest that has bolstered supply prospects, and concern about the impact of the US-China trade war.
The USDA late Monday rated 73 percent of the US soyabean crop in good-to-excellent condition, its highest rating for this time of year in records dating to the mid-1980s. CBOT benchmark November soyabeans were down 8 cents at $8.87-1/2 a bushel while September corn was up 1/4 cent at $3.59-3/4 a bushel.
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