Chicago soybean and corn futures slid for a second session on Wednesday to a one-week low, as a U.S. government forecast of lower demand and higher production weighed on prices.
Wheat gained ground after Tuesday’s losses, but hopes of resumption in exports from war-torn Ukraine limited gains.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade Sv1 (CBOT) was down 0.8% at $/4 a bushel, as of 0217 GMT, and corn Cv1 lost 0.4% to $5.84 a bushel. Both markets hit their lowest levels since July 6.
Wheat Wv1 rose 0.8% to $/4 a bushel.
Demand for U.S. soybeans is falling as bumper crops in South America eat into U.S. export prospects, the U.S. government said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) lowered its outlook for soybean exports by 65 million bushels and its outlook for domestic crush by 10 million bushels in its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.
The agency also raised its forecast for domestic corn production after factoring in the June acreage outlook that showed farmers were able to seed more of the grain they had planned in the spring despite rainy weather that delayed plantings.
Corn production was pegged at 14.505 billion bushels, 45 million bushels higher than USDA’s previous outlook.
An outlook for higher wheat output in Russia and expectations of Ukrainian supplies entering the market weighed on prices.
Farmers in Russia’s southern Rostov region, one of the largest grain producing and exporting areas of the country, are seeing high wheat yields as harvesting gets underway, growers and officials in the region said.
Sanctions-hit Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, is expected to produce a massive crop in 2022 with record amounts available to supply abroad in the July-June marketing season.
Talks between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations over Ukraine’s war-disrupted grain exports eased some of the supply concerns.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, wheat, soybean, soymeal and soyoil futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said.
