Chicago | Reuters — Benchmark U.S. corn futures fell to their lowest point in seven weeks on Wednesday as the harvest continued and showed better than expected yields, while weather forecasts improved in crop areas of South America.
Wheat and soybean prices were modestly higher in rangebound trading.
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn closed down 3-3/4 cents at $4.75 per bushel after earlier touching their lowest prices since Sept. 19 (all figures US$). January soybeans settled up 4-1/2 cents at $13.15 per bushel and December wheat rose 5-1/2 cents to 5.61-3/4 per bushel.
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After the close of trading, commodity brokerage StoneX raised its U.S. 2023 corn crop estimate to 15.302 billion bushels from its previous 15.282 billion estimate.
As the U.S. corn and soybean harvest wound down, traders have been shifting their focus to South American crops.
“The weather does improve for central and northern Brazil, and more importantly, Argentina, especially (with) the rains to pick up after this weekend,” Marex Capital analyst Terry Reilly said, adding that export demand for U.S. corn supplies has been poor.
Brokers continued to monitor tensions in the wheat-exporting Black Sea region. Ukraine said Russian warplanes had dropped “explosive objects” into the likely paths of civilian vessels in the Black Sea three times in the last 24 hours, but that its fledgling shipping corridor was still operating.
“I think renewed Black Sea shipping concerns, along with a possible increase of violence of other countries, in the Middle East, is getting that market a little bit of attention,” Reilly said.
As for soybeans, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its monthly report that 5.24 million tons of the crop were crushed in September in the United States.
StoneX forecast U.S. soybean production at 4.162 billion bushels, down from 4.175 billion previously. Earlier, the firm raised its forecast of Brazil’s 2023-24 soybean crop to 165 million metric tonnes, from 164.1 million previously.
— Reporting for Reuters by Brendan O’Brien and Julie Ingwersen in Chicago, Peter Hobson in Canberra and Nigel Hunt in London.
