Wheat firms after deep losses, improved US crop condition caps gains
Chicago wheat rose for the first time in three sessions on Tuesday as bargain buying supported the market although improved health of the U.S. winter crop limited the upside potential in prices.
Soybeans gained ground on concerns over planting delays in top exporter Brazil, where dry weather is threatening to cut yields, while corn was little changed.
“U.S. winter crop ratings are better than expected which has raised hopes for supplies next year,” said a Singapore-based trader. “But the crop still has to go through the development phase early next year.”
The most active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 0.3% to $5.62-1/2 a bushel, as of 0336 GMT, after dropping 2.8% in the last session.
Soybeans added 0.4% to $13.34-3/4 a bushel and corn was unmoved at $4.75-1/4 a bushel.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday rated 50% of the U.S. winter wheat crop in good-to-excellent condition, up two percentage points from last week and a bigger improvement than most analysts expected.
Export prices for Russian wheat rose last week, helped by a continuing drop in shipments owing to stormy weather in ports, analysts said.
The price of 12.5% protein Russian wheat scheduled for free-on-board delivery in January was $235 per metric ton last week, up $5 from the previous week, the IKAR agriculture consultancy reported.
For soybeans, the market continues to closely monitor crop-threatening conditions in Brazil.
Brazil’s 2023/24 soybean planting had reached 74% of the expected area as of Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, making it the slowest progress for the period in eight years as the country grapples with bad weather.
Sowing was up 6 percentage points from the previous week but continued to lag far behind last year’s levels when 87% of the areas had been planted at the same time and is now the slowest since 2015/16.
The U.S. corn crop was 96% harvested by Sunday, the USDA said, behind the average trade estimate of 97% but ahead of the five-year average of 95%. The U.S. soybean harvest was 95% complete by Nov. 12, the government reported previously.
Large speculators increased their net short position in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures in the week to Nov. 21, regulatory data released on Monday showed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their net short position in CBOT wheat and cut their net long position in soybeans.
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