US soyabean futures dropped 1.2 percent on Thursday on hopes that rain in parts of the drought-stricken US Midwest will improve harvest prospects for a crop that has been stressed by dry soils and heat for the past month, traders said. Wheat futures also fell as news of a sale of Russian wheat to Iraq cooled talk of possible export curbs in major producer Russia.
Corn, under pressure from technical selling, followed soyabeans lower but its declines lagged the oilseed's as the rain was not expected to provide much benefit to the corn crop as it approaches maturity. Rain in the northern Midwest this week has likely improved crop prospects there but heat and dryness in the south-west continues to stress corn and soyabeans, Andy Karst, an agricultural meteorologist for World Weather Inc said.
Chicago Board of Trade November soyabeans were down 18-1/2 cents at $15.97 a bushel as of 10:50 a.m. CDT (1550 GMT). CBOT new-crop December corn was 5-3/4 cents lower at $7.82-1/4 a bushel while CBOT September wheat dropped 14 cents to $8.89-1/4 bushel.