Spot corn and soyabean basis bids were mostly steady to firm on Monday amid a lack of farmer selling following a steep decline in prices last week, grain merchants said. Futures were up sharply in overnight electronic trading and were expected to open higher on Monday. Farmers were waiting until after futures open before deciding whether or not to book further sales.
Dealers said a sharply higher open may trigger light farmer selling, but most producers appeared willing to wait for a further recovery from last week's sharp drop in prices before selling. Spot corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell 3.6 percent last week. Soyabean futures dropped nearly 10 percent. Many farmers were still targeting cash prices of $10 a bushel for soyabeans and $4 a bushel for corn, as they have been in recent weeks.
But last week's steep drop had some producers scaling back their price expectations slightly, dealers said. An Iowa dealer said he expected some selling to develop if corn prices increased to $3.75 and if soyabean prices rose to around $9.50. One dealer rolled the soya basis bid to the CBOT May contract from the March.
Others were expected to start rolling corn, soya, and wheat bids from March to May futures in the coming days. CBOT grain and soyabean futures were expected to open higher on Monday on support from early gains in the stock market, traders said. A farmer strike in Argentina was also seen supportive to corn and soya. Soyabeans called to open up 18 to 20 cents per bushel, corn seen up 8 to 10 cents, CBOT wheat seen up 5 to 7 cents.