Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures fell to two-week lows and new-crop soybeans hit a six-month low on Thursday on improving crop weather in the Midwest and news of a deal to restart Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports, traders said.
Wheat futures declined after choppy trade. All three markets fell to the day’s lows late in the session after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s office said Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will sign a deal on Friday to resume Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports.
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Russia and Ukraine are both major global wheat suppliers, but Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of its neighbour sent food prices soaring and stoked an international food crisis.
Chicago Board of Trade December corn futures settled down 16-1/2 cents at $5.73-1/2 per bushel after dipping to $5.70, the contract’s lowest since July 6. November soybeans ended down 30-3/4 cents at $13.01-1/2 per bushel after hitting $12.94-3/4, the contract’s lowest since Jan. 24.
CBOT September wheat finished down 13-1/4 cents at $8.06-1/4 a bushel.
Corn and soybean prices sagged on crop weather in the U.S. Midwest where corn is pollinating, its key reproductive phase, later than usual. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said 37 per cent of the U.S. corn crop was in the silking stage as of July 17, behind the five-year average of 48 per cent.
Forecasts called for beneficial rains and moderating U.S. Midwest temperatures next week.
“People are thinking the weather is going to be a little bit better for the reproduction,” said Jack Scoville, analyst with the Price Futures Group in Chicago. “The cooler temperatures next week will be extremely beneficial, and some rain would help.”
Worries about tight global grain supplies underpinned the market. The International Grains Council (IGC) in a monthly update lowered its forecast of 2022-23 world corn production to 1.189 billion tonnes, down one million tonnes from last month.
But the IGC raised its 2022-23 world wheat production forecast to 770 million tonnes, up one million from last month.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s state grains buyer is believed to have bought an additional 120,000 tonnes of Russian and French wheat on Thursday, traders said, after booking 640,000 tonnes a day earlier.
— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in SIngapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.
