US soyabean futures rose on Wednesday, reflecting a slowdown in the Midwest harvest as rains stalled fieldwork and weak cash values discouraged farmer selling, analysts said. Wheat futures fell on technical selling and a lack of supportive news. Corn was modestly lower.
As of 1:05 p.m. CDT (1805 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade November soyabeans were up 2-3/4 cents at $9.58 per bushel. CBOT December wheat was down 4-3/4 cents at $4.43-1/4 a bushel and December corn was down 1/2 cent at $3.49 a bushel. Soyabeans firmed a day after the November contract notched a near three-week low.
Rains crossed parts of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin in the last day, with light showers crossing areas of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Corn futures were lower but pared losses after the December contract dipped to a three-week low of $3.46. Traders noted chart support at the contract low of $3.44-1/4, set on Aug. 31.
Corn was anchored by better-than-expected yield reports from the early harvest and fears that the US Department of Agriculture might raise its US corn yield forecast in its next monthly supply/demand report on Oct. 12. Commodity brokerage INTL FCStone this week raised its forecast of the US corn yield to 169.2 bushels per acre, from 166.9 a month earlier. The firm also raised its US soyabean yield forecast, to 49.9 bpa from 49.8 previously. Wheat prices remained capped by export competition created by a record Russian harvest this year, as illustrated by the latest Egyptian purchase of Russian wheat on Tuesday.