CHICAGO: Chicago soybean and corn futures stumbled on Wednesday as traders assessed whether beneficial rain and forecasts for milder weather will aid the country’s corn and soy crops during their final growing stages, analysts said.

Industry players have raised concerns that recent hot, dry weather in the US Midwest will dent expectations of bumper US corn and soy crops.

Wheat ticked up on technical trading and bargain-buying, traders said. The most active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade fell 7-3/4 cents to $9.78-3/4 per bushel as of 1550 GMT.

Corn fell 1/2 cent to $3.92-1/4 a bushel and wheat was up 7-3/4 cents at $5.43-1/4 per bushel. Worries over a heat wave and lack of rainfall in large parts of the Midwest have underpinned prices in the past few sessions because of potential damage to the soybean crop during its key development stage.

However, recent rainfall has reduced dryness in many areas, though uncertainty remains over whether it will be enough to help the soybean crop reach its potential.

“We haven’t completely alleviated the concern about whether we’ll get the timely rain to get the big yields,” said Ted Seifried, strategist at Zaner Group.

The extreme heat in the central US is expected to moderate as the week progresses, according to Commodity Weather Group. Although excessive rains in Europe have dented the German and French wheat crops, cheap wheat exports from the Black Sea have continued to keep the world supplied with the grain and undercut US exports.

Early Wednesday, Statistics Canada estimated Canada’s 2024 all-wheat harvest at 34.4 million metric tons, up 4.3% from 2023 but below an average of analyst estimates for 35.125 million tons.