Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures rose for the third day in a row on Thursday, touching their highest in more than five weeks on concerns that dry weather will arrive too late to allow for planting in rain-soaked areas of the Midwest, traders said.
Traders said the excess moisture could force farmers to cut back on their intended soy seedings as the optimum window for planting closes.
“The acreage numbers, that one is a really tough one,” said Bill Gentry, a broker at Risk Management Commodities in Lafayette, Indiana. “The weather maps this morning look a little more agreeable but we still have got to dry a lot of ground out to get it planted.”
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But the outlook for drier conditions weighed on corn and wheat futures and both grains closed lower.
The concerns about a cutback in soybean acreage, as well as deteriorating conditions in soaked fields, caused some traders to unwind bearish bets, adding further support to soy futures.
“In the big scheme of things, it’s still a supply-based bear market,” Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines, Iowa, said. “But (it’s) fund short covering… There is just too big a commitment to the short side, at a time when you have nervous news about the crop.”
CBOT July soybean futures contract settled up 8-3/4 cents at $9.77-3/4 a bushel (all figures US$). The front-month contract peaked at $9.81-3/4, its highest since May 12.
CBOT July soft red winter wheat for July delivery was down 3-1/4 cents at $4.88 a bushel.
K.C. hard red winter wheat, which tracks the crop grown in the U.S. Plains, posted bigger losses as drier weather in that region will allow farmers to speed up their harvest pace.
Corn futures also weakened, with traders noting mild profit taking after two days of gains pushed prices up three per cent. CBOT July corn futures ended down 1-1/4 cents at $3.58 a bushel.
— Mark Weinraub is a Reuters correspondent covering grain markets from Chicago. Additional reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Colin Packham in Sydney.
