Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures on Thursday rebounded from a seven-month low after three days of declines in a short-covering bounce and following a government report showing higher ethanol output and lower stocks of the corn-based biofuel.
Wheat futures were mixed as a weaker dollar and concerns about the outlook for crops in Russia kept a floor under the market, but sluggish U.S. export demand continued to restrict gains.
Soybeans drifted lower on rising global supplies and expectations that the settlement of a strike in Argentina will speed up its soy shipments and chill U.S. export interest.
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The dollar was slightly weaker against a basket of currencies on Thursday after hitting a one-month high the prior day, helping crude oil and other commodity markets recover from recent losses.
“To see a little bit of buying at these levels is not that surprising. The dollar play is coming into it today as well,” said Karl Setzer, analyst with Max Yield Cooperative.
Chicago Board of Trade July corn rose four cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $3.53-1/2 a bushel after sinking to a low of $3.48-1/4 earlier in the session, the lowest price for a spot contract since Oct. 21 (all figures US$).
The market received a lift from U.S. Energy Information Administration data showing an 11,000-barrel-per-day uptick in weekly ethanol production last week and a sizeable 337,000-barrel drawdown in stocks.
CBOT July soft red winter wheat gained a penny to $4.88-3/4 a bushel while July hard red winter wheat shed 1-3/4 cents to $5.10-1/4 a bushel.
Wheat prices remain anchored by sluggish U.S. export demand, but growing doubts about optimistic Russian wheat crop forecasts have buoyed prices.
Farmers in Russia’s Rostov region, one of the most important for wheat exports, face flat or lower wheat yields this year due to a lack of rain last autumn and the current hot weather may worsen the situation.
The purchase by Egypt’s government grain buyer GASC of 240,000 tonnes of Russian and Romanian wheat in a snap tender served as a reminder of U.S. wheat’s challenges in the global marketplace. No U.S. grain was offered in the tender.
The CBOT July soybean contract was a penny lower at $9.26 a bushel, posting its sixth decline in seven sessions. The August through November 2016 contracts set new contract lows.
— Karl Plume reports on agriculture and ag commodity markets for Reuters from Chicago. Additional reporting for Reuters by Nigel Hunt in London and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
