Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat and corn futures rose on Tuesday, supported by concerns that adverse weather in key production areas would limit the size of harvests this year, traders said.
Soybean futures eased as Brazil’s Anec raised its outlook for the country’s export forecast for the oilseed. Losses were kept in check by signs that the United States remains competitive for deals with top buyer China.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday afternoon rated 27 per cent of U.S. winter wheat in good-to-excellent condition, down three percentage points from a week ago and the lowest for this time of year since 1989, as drought persists in the Plains wheat belt.
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“A lower U.S. wheat crop would further exacerbate the supply tightness on the wheat market as Ukraine is likely to grow significantly less wheat this year on account of the war,” Commerzbank said in a note.
USDA also said that corn planting was seven per cent complete as of April 24, below the average analyst estimate of nine per cent and the five-year average of 15 per cent.
“The U.S. corn planting campaign still has time before putting a huge dent in potential production, but forecast maps are relentlessly cold and wet,” Matt Zeller, director of market information at brokerage StoneX, said in a note to clients.
Chicago Board of Trade July soft red winter wheat futures settled up 22-1/2 cents at $10.95 a bushel (all figures US$).
CBOT July corn futures were 3-1/2 cents higher at $8.01-1/2 a bushel. New-crop corn futures, which track the crop that will be grown this summer, posted bigger gains, with the December contract rising 9-1/2 cents to $7.43-1/2.
CBOT July soybeans were 3-1/2 cents lower at $16.71-3/4 a bushel.
Private exporters reported the sale of 132,000 tonnes of soybeans to China for delivery in the 2022/23 marketing year, USDA said on Tuesday morning.
— Reporting for Reuters by Mark Weinraub in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
