Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell more than three per cent on Monday, their largest daily decline since June, after a record supply outlook from the U.S. Department of Agriculture triggered investment fund liquidation.
Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures also were lower on pressure from larger-than-expected global supply forecasts while corn reversed from earlier losses after USDA pegged domestic supplies smaller than analysts anticipated.
“Going forward we’re going to have a hard time keeping the soybean price up. It’s going to be hard for the soybean bulls to have a whole lot to chew on,” said CHS Hedging analyst Joe Lardy.
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As of Dec. 1, U.S. commercial handlers were holding the largest ever soybean supplies following last year’s record harvest while South American farmers were likely to gather their biggest soy crops in history, USDA data showed.
Most-active CBOT March soybeans finished 36-1/4 cents lower at $10.16-/1/2 per bushel, a one-week low (all figures US$). The session declines were the largest since a USDA report on June 30 that showed U.S. farmers had planted record acres of the crop.
Corn for March delivery was up 1-3/4 cents at $4.01-3/4, with the tumble in soybeans and in crude oil pulling corn from its earlier high of $4.07.
Investment funds sold 14,000 soy contracts and 5,000 wheat contracts and bought 8,000 corn contracts, trade sources said.
Estimated volume showed the most-active trading day in months, according to Reuters data.
The government lifted its expected use of U.S. corn for ethanol and reduced the corn yield, resulting in a slightly smaller stockpile that still was the largest in history.
U.S. wheat plantings were smaller than expected but global supplies were likely to remain robust, weighing on prices.
CBOT March wheat was 8-1/4 cents lower at $5.55-1/2.
The acres that were not planted with wheat in the U.S. could instead be planted with soybeans later this year, said Allendale Inc. analyst Rich Nelson.
“Winter wheat seedings were a full two million acres under the average guess. That would imply we will have plenty of acres waiting for spring planting,” Nelson said.
— Michael Hirtzer reports on agriculture and ag commodity markets for Reuters from Chicago. Additional reporting for Reuters by Meredith Davis and Karl Plume in Chicago, Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
