Chicago | Reuters –– U.S. wheat futures slumped to a one-month low on Thursday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast larger-than-expected global production and stocks in a monthly report that reinforced a recent spate of bearish news.
Corn and soybean futures tracked wheat lower, but promptly rebounded from their lows on speculative and technical buying following the USDA data, which traders and analysts said was largely neutral for the two commodities.
The agency raised its global wheat ending stocks view by a greater-than-anticipated 2.38 million tonnes on a stronger production outlook for Australia, Canada and Russia, the top exporter.
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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.
Fears about rain-damaged Australian wheat and Russian export curbs had fueled a recent surge in wheat prices to multi-year highs.
“Australian weather has gotten better and Russia hasn’t limited its (wheat) exports as we had been talking about… This report shouldn’t be a shock, but now we’re seeing it on paper. Whoever didn’t know now knows,” said Ted Seifried, chief agriculture strategist with the Zaner Group.
Chicago Board of Trade March wheat ended down 17-3/4 cents at $7.76-3/4 a bushel and touched its lowest level for a most-active contract since Nov. 9 (all figures US$). The contract broke through technical chart support at its 50-day moving average, accelerating the selling.
CBOT March corn rose 4-1/2 cents to $5.91-3/4 per bushel, a 1-1/2 week high, while January soybeans were up 3-1/2 cents at $12.64-1/2 a bushel.
USDA left its outlooks for U.S. corn and soybean ending stocks unchanged at 340 million bushels and 1.493 billion bushels, respectively. Analysts had, on average, expected smaller corn stocks and a larger soybean stockpile.
The agency also increased global corn ending stocks amid larger crops in Ukraine and the European Union and a smaller crop in China, and trimmed world soybean supplies.
— Reporting for Reuters by Mark Weinraub and Karl Plume in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
