Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures rose 1.1 per cent on Tuesday, supported by strong export demand for U.S. supplies despite a massive crop from South American producers Brazil and Argentina.
Technical buying also helped fuel a rally in the soybean market, which closed near session highs.
Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures were modestly higher, eking out small gains on bargain buying after hitting a three-week low during the session. K.C. hard red winter wheat futures remained mired in negative territory, posting their third straight day of declines as fears of crop damage eased following a winter storm.
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Corn was close to unchanged as investors digested a U.S. Agriculture Department report that showed farmers had surpassed the typical pace of seeding after a slow start to planting.
CBOT July soybean futures ended up 11 cents at $9.76-1/4 a bushel, just a penny off of a session peak (all figures US$).
USDA said on Tuesday morning that private exporters reported the sale of 132,000 tonnes of soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2016-17 marketing year.
Chicago Board of Trade July soft red winter wheat futures closed up one cent at $4.24-1/4 a bushel. Prices bottomed out at $4.20-1/4, the lowest for the most active contract since April 25, before rebounding.
But K.C. hard red winter wheat for July delivery fell four cents to close at $4.24-1/2 a bushel.
“Wheat is again being weakened by prospects of big global supplies, with crops in the northern hemisphere developing overall positively, reinforcing prospects of good harvests this summer,” said Stefan Vogel, head of agricultural commodity markets research at Rabobank.
CBOT July corn was unchanged at $3.67-3/4 a bushel.
USDA said on Monday afternoon that the U.S. corn crop was 71 per cent planted as of May 15, up from only 47 per cent the previous week and above analysts’ estimates of 68 per cent in a Reuters poll.
“Progress was very rapid in the last week as weather improved,” Vogel said, “and this has calmed worries in the corn market, which in turn is also undermining wheat.”
— Mark Weinraub is a Reuters correspondent covering grain markets from Chicago. Additional reporting for Reuters by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
