Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ticked up on Thursday on signs of short-covering and consolidation, with traders hopeful that President Donald Trump will get foreign buyers to purchase more U.S. farm goods, market analysts said.
While some details of the emerging U.S.-Japanese trade deal are still unclear, Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Thursday that he would do his utmost to ensure the trade deal would be implemented.
Soybean futures ended a choppy day higher on technical trading and trade deal hopes, even as U.S. weekly export sales came in at the lower end of trade estimates and beneficial U.S. crop weather continued to weigh on grain and oilseed markets, analysts said.
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U.S. grains: Chicago wheat futures dip on global supply pressure; corn, soybeans fall
Chicago | Reuters – Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures fell on Friday and notched a weekly loss, as plentiful…
Wheat futures recouped some of their losses on signs of export demand, but expectations of ample global supplies and strength in the U.S. dollar capped gains, market analysts said. U.S. wheat is now cheaper than wheat from Europe or top exporter Russia, where a large harvest is beginning to flow into the market.
After the markets closed, scouts on an annual North Dakota crop tour on Thursday projected hard red spring wheat yields in the top-producing state will average 49.0 bushels per acre, down from a record 54.5 bpa last year, according to records going back to 1992. The projection is below the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast for the state.
On Thursday, the most active CBOT wheat contract Wv1 settled up 1 cent at $5.41-1/2 a bushel. CBOT corn Cv1 ended up 3-1/4 cents at $4.20-3/4 a bushel, while soybeans Sv1 settled 1-1/2 cents higher at $10.24-1/4 a bushel.
Earlier in the session, soybean futures faced spillover pressure from weakness in the CBOT soymeal market, traders said, which turned lower on news that a Chinese buyer has signed a deal this week to import 30,000 metric tons of Argentine meal.
“If China comes to the U.S. last for its soybean needs, eventually that will mean other buyers are going to end up buying U.S. beans and meal,” said Jake Hanley, managing director and senior portfolio specialist at Teucrium Trading. “But in the near term? It’s not optimistic news.”
—Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago, Peter Hobson in Canberra and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.
