US corn futures slipped for a 10th straight session early on Thursday, their longest string of declines since 2007, as crop-friendly weather in South America and expectations of higher global supplies dragged down prices. Wheat futures fell as improving US weather conditions and fund selling overshadowed strong weekly US export sales data, and soyabeans fell after weekly export sales fell short of trade expectations.
At the Chicago Board of Trade as of 11 am CST (1700 GMT), March corn was down 3-1/2 cents, 0.5 percent, at $6.92 per bushel. March wheat was down 9 cents, 1.2 percent, at $7.26-1/2 a bushel. March soyabeans were down 7 cents, 0.5 percent, at $14.16 a bushel. Corn's slide, matching a 10-day skid in June 2007, has pushed the market well into technically oversold territory. The nine-day relative strength index for the March contract stood at 25 ahead of Thursday's trade. An RSI of zero to 30 is one sign of an oversold market, while a reading of 70 to 100 indicates an overbought market. But open interest in CBOT corn futures has risen over the course of the February sell-off, indicating that traders are adding new short positions. Open interest in CBOT wheat has also increased this month while prices have fallen.
The weekly US Drought Monitor report issued by a consortium of state and federal climatologists still showed severe drought across 82.51 percent of the High Plains region, but the figure was down from 87.25 percent a week earlier. The US Department of Agriculture reported weekly export sales of US wheat for the current and new marketing year at 706,300 tonnes, a seven-week high that topped trade expectations for 275,000 to 400,000 tonnes.
But the data failed to confirm sales of US wheat to Brazil, Britain or Russia that had been rumoured last week. Weekly export sales of soyabeans fell short of expectations. The government pegged sales at 235,900 tonnes, including net cancellations of 109,100 tonnes for 2012/13 and net sales of 345,000 tonnes for 2013/14. Trade estimates were for 700,000 to 1.1 million tonnes.