US wheat futures fell to fresh contract lows on Tuesday as technical selling pressure dragged prices lower for a fifth straight session. Chart-based selling accelerated as prices slipped below the prior day's two-month low. That move more than offset supportive news of a large export sale to Iraq and a government report showing the recently planted US winter wheat crop was in poorer shape than expected.
Corn followed wheat downward as harvesting of a bumper US crop progressed, while soyabeans recouped part of their losses from the previous session. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Tuesday confirmed private sales of 100,000 tonnes of hard red winter wheat to Iraq.
A day earlier, the agency said 52 percent of the US wheat crop was in good to excellent condition as of Sunday, well behind market forecasts. Actively traded Chicago Board Of Trade December wheat was down 8-1/4 cents, or 1.9 percent, to a contract low of $4.16-1/2 a bushel at 11:18 a.m. CDT (1618 GMT). The December 2017 through March 2019 contracts all posted new contract lows.
December K.C. hard red winter wheat fell 8-1/4 cents, or 2 percent, to q contract low of $4.13-1/2 a bushel. All traded months, from December 2017 to December 2018, posted contract lows. CBOT December corn fell 3-1/4 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $3.45-1/2 a bushel, a one-week low. January soyabeans gained 1-1/2 cents to $9.86 a bushel and held support at its 200-day moving average around $9.81-1/2. The USDA said 54 percent of the corn crop was harvested as of Sunday, ahead of market expectations, while 83 percent of the soyabean crop has been harvested, in line with analysts' expectations.