US soyabean futures turned lower on Friday, halting a three-day winning streak, after Informa Economics raised its estimates of soya production in Brazil and Argentina, easing concerns about tight world supplies. Corn futures retreated on profit-taking after extending a 32-month high, and wheat followed corn and soyabeans down.
Traders were also watching declines on Wall Street as higher crude oil prices threatened to slow economic growth, which could stall demand for commodities such as grains. As of 11:15 am CST (1715 GMT) on the Chicago Board of Trade, May soyabean futures were down 12 cents at $14.00 per bushel.
May corn was down 9-1/2 cents at $7.27-1/4 and May wheat was down 5-1/2 cents at $8.18 a bushel. Soyabeans fell after analytical firm Informa raised its estimate of Brazil's soyabean crop to 71.4 million tonnes, up 2.1 million tonnes from its previous monthly forecast, trade sources said.
Informa also pegged the Argentine soyabean harvest at 52 million tonnes, up from 49 million previously. "I don't think (the market) liked the Informa bean numbers. Those are large numbers, if proven correct," said Dan Cekander, analyst with Newedge USA in Chicago.
The big South American forecasts outweighed concerns about harvest delays in Brazil and labour unrest at ports in Argentina that had supported CBOT soyabeans early in the session. In Argentina, workers halted grain shipments at two wheat export ports in support of a wage protest that paralysed two major soya-processing terminals in the Rosario area this week. Argentina is the world's biggest supplier of soyaoil and soyameal, and No 3 in soyabean exports after the United States and Brazil.