Spot basis bids for soyabeans rose at processors and elevators around the US Midwest on Wednesday while corn bids were mostly steady, grain dealers said. Soyabean dealers tightened their basis bids after a downturn in the futures market cut cash prices by nearly 8 cents per bushel.
Cash bids for soyabeans rose by as much as 10 cents per bushel at a processor in Sioux City, Iowa. Dealers were trying to pique farmers' interest in selling what remained of their old crop supplies. Most growers already have sold a larger-than-usual amount of their soyabeans so they were under little pressure to sell.
Growers still had bullish expectations about prices despite the weakness in the futures market on Wednesday. "It has been real slow," a western Iowa dealer said. "They think it is going higher."
Although corn bids were mostly steady, the basis rose by 3 cents per bushel at a processor in eastern Nebraska. Some processors were still trying to boost supplies to maintain their crushing pace. Shipping costs eased on Midwest rivers after a winter storm passed through the Midwest.
Barges were bid at 500 percent of tariff on the Illinois River, down from 520 percent of tariff on Tuesday. On the lower Ohio River, barges were bid at 380 percent of tariff, down 10 percentage points from Tuesday. On the Mississippi River at St. Louis, bids for barges held steady at 420 percent of tariff.
At the Chicago Board of Trade, March soyabean futures closed 7-3/4 cents lower at $14.59 per bushel as traders took profits following rallies to record highs during the previous two trading sessions. March corn settled down 5-1/2 cents at $5.25 per bushel on a technical correction following a rally to a record high earlier in the week. May corn futures closed 6 cents per bushel lower at $5.38. CBOT March wheat closed 80-1/2 cents higher, a 6.7 percent gain, at $11.80 per bushel on news that Kazakhstan was cancelling wheat sales.