SINGAPORE: Chicago corn futures edged higher on Friday, recouping some of the last session’s deep losses, although the market is poised for a second week of decline as a forecast of higher US planting weighed.
Wheat is on track for its biggest weekly drop in seven, while soybeans are set to finish the week in the positive territory.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) gained 0.3% at $6.61-1/2 a bushel, as of 0248 GMT, wheat added quarter of a cent at $7.50-3/4 a bushel and soybeans rose 0.2% to $15.30-3/4 a bushel.
Corn near 1-week high on Argentina supply woes, soybeans firm
For the week, corn is down 2.4%, wheat has lost 3.3% and soybeans are up marginally.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), at its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, pegged 2023 corn plantings at 91 million acres (36.8 million hectares), up from 88.6 million last year, and production at 15.085 billion bushels, based on a record-high yield of 181.5 bushels per acre.
Analysts were expecting plantings of 90.9 million acres and production of 14.949 billion bushels.
“The USDA Outlook Forum data carried a bearish tilt…” the Hightower said in a report. “(However), dry conditions continue to be a concern for immature corn in Argentina. The country continues to see poor growing conditions and any showers will be limited for the rest of February and at last the front half of March, keeping stress high.”
Adverse weather continues to impact crops across South America.
More than half of the second corn crop in Brazil’s Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul states will be planted outside the ideal climate window, according to estimates by agribusiness consultancy AgRural on Thursday.
This raises the prospect of the crop being hit by frosts, as the case was in the 2020/2021 cycle, when both states suffered severe losses.
Argentina’s 2022/2023 soybean crop is estimated at 33.5 million tonnes, down from 38 million tonnes previously forecast, a major grains exchange said on Thursday, as drought, a recent heat wave and early frosts have taken their toll on the key cash crop.
The new estimate marks the third cut the Buenos Aires grains exchange has issued for soybean production, which at the beginning of the season was estimated at 48 million tonnes.
The USDA projected total US wheat production at 1.887 billion bushels, with an average yield of 49.2 bushels per acre, up 6% from last year’s drought-affected average of 46.5 bushels.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean and soyoil futures contracts on Thursday and net buyers of wheat futures, traders said. Funds were seen as net even in soymeal futures, they said.