Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures fell on Monday as crude oil prices dipped and harvest pressure dragged down soy and corn prices, market analysts said.
Corn also eased on uncertainty over the Nov. 5 U.S. election outcome as Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are polling neck-and-neck in swing states.
Wheat futures weakened after rains eased some drought concerns in the U.S. wheat-growing Great Plains and on signs that Russian export prices may be stabilizing.
CBOT’s most-active soybeans Sv1ended down 13-3/4 cents at $9.74 a bushel.
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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.
CBOT corn Cv1settled down 4-1/2 cents at $4.10-3/4 a bushel, while wheat Wv1ended down 10-1/4 cents at $5.58-3/4 per bushel.
The weakness in the soybean market was largely a spillover effect of Monday’s fall on the energy market, said Mike Zuzolo, president of Global Commodity Analytics.
Oil prices declined by around $4 a barrel on Monday after Israel’s retaliatory strike against Iran at the weekend bypassed oil and nuclear facilities and did not disrupt energy supplies.
In wheat, increased showers for the U.S. hard red winter wheat belt are expected to reduce dryness for the grain in the next 10 days and coming weeks, according to Commodity Weather Group.
Wheat traders were also “picking up on the idea that maybe the upside in Russian wheat prices has been attained,” said Zuzolo. “Maybe they’ll stabilize at this point.”
Russian wheat prices dropped as weather in producing regions became more favourable, according to local consultancies.
The price of 12.5% protein Russian wheat, scheduled free-on-board (FOB) for delivery in November, was $232 per metric ton at the end of last week, a drop of $2, said Dmitry Rylko, head of the IKAR consultancy.
—Additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore
