Mexico City | Reuters — Chicago grains futures closed lower on Tuesday as traders took profits, analysts said, while improving weather forecasts eased concerns about planting in the United States.
Blizzard warnings were posted on Tuesday across most of the northern Plains spring wheat belt, but forecasts called for a turn to warmer and drier conditions later this week that should help melt snow in the region ahead of planting.
“We’ve been on a pretty good ride,” said Jack Scoville, market analyst at The Price Futures Group. “With the lack of any bullish news here, the market seems content to take some profits.”
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As the harvest in southern Alberta presses on, a broker said that is one of the factors pulling feed prices lower in the region. Darcy Haley, vice-president of Ag Value Brokers in Lethbridge, added that lower cattle numbers in feedlots, plentiful amounts of grass for cattle to graze and a lacklustre export market also weighed on feed prices.
Corn eased as forecasts for dry weather in key parts of the U.S. Midwest boosted planting prospects. Soybeans also declined on optimism that planting weather will improve after expected storms this week, traders said.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) settled down two cents at $6.91-1/2 per bushel as an improving weather outlook tempered concerns about poor U.S. winter crop conditions and Black Sea exports (all figures US$).
CBOT corn dipped four cents to $6.53-3/4 a bushel and soybeans settled down 4-1/2 cents at $15.17-1/2 per bushel.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its first weekly crop progress report of the 2023 growing season rated 28 per cent of U.S. winter wheat in “good-to-excellent” condition, the lowest score for the time of year in records dating to 1989.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average had expected the government to rate 31 per cent of the crop as good-to-excellent.
“This confirms that the winter weather has been severe along with another water deficit,” consultancy Agritel said in a note.
Wheat markets are also being underpinned by uncertainty over Black Sea export supplies.
Corn planting was two per cent complete, in line with last year, USDA’s crop report showed on Monday.
— Reporting for Reuters by Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
