Chicago | Reuters—Chicago corn and soybean futures ended lower on a volatile day of trading Tuesday, as U.S. farmers raced to plant their fields and investors bemoaned a lack of fresh news over the U.S.-China trade war, traders said.
Meanwhile, Chicago soft-red winter wheat futures closed sharply lower, with all front-month contracts setting new contract lows during the session, amid timely rainfall for U.S. crops and questions about Russian supplies on the global market, market analysts said.
Corn futures saw some support from the Trump administration issuing an emergency waiver to allow the sale of a higher-ethanol gasoline blend to be sold this summer nationwide, saying it will add to fuel supply during the peak U.S. driving season and bring down costs. But the fact that the U.S. government didn’t announce any new biofuel subsidies weighed on soyoil and soybean futures, market analysts said.
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Corn and soybean markets also were pressured from favourable crop weather in South America. Recent showers have eased drought conditions that threatened Brazil’s safrinha corn crop, while a dry spell in Argentina is set to help corn and soybean harvesting after heavy rain.
“We’re extracting weather premium from this market,” said Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co.
Wheat market participants were monitoring how a cold spell in Russia may be impacting the wheat crop, though a recovery in Russian export volumes this month and U.S.-led efforts to end Russia’s war with Ukraine were tempering supply concerns, traders said.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wv1 settled down 5-1/2 cents at $5.25-1/2 per bushel. Earlier in the session, it dipped to the lowest price since April 4.
CBOT’s most-active corn contract Cv1 ended down 13 cents at $4.70-1/4 a bushel, after earlier touching down to $4.69-3/4 a bushel – the lowest price seen since April 9. And CBOT soybeans Sv1 closed down 9-3/4 cents at $10.52-3/4 a bushel, after earlier touching the lowest price since April 23.
Grain traders are continuing to monitor developments in U.S. tariff policy, and some said they were disappointed that a trade stand-off with top soybean importer China continued to cloud U.S. export prospects. News that China aims to cut grain use in livestock feed to around 60 per cent and slash soymeal content to about 10 per cent also pressured markets, traders said.
Traders also focused on the pace of U.S. planting. U.S. farmers had planted 24 per cent of the corn crop as of Sunday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a weekly report released after Monday’s market close – one percentage point behind analysts’ average estimate but ahead of the five-year average of 22 per cent.
USDA said the soybean crop was 18 per cent planted, ahead of both the five-year average of 12 per cent and analysts’ average estimate of 17 per cent.
—Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore
