Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures hit a one-week low on Tuesday and grains declined amid pressure from weak financial markets and concerns about inflation, analysts said.
A second straight day of losses in equities and jitters about the economy helped drag down soy futures, after prices for the oilseed neared a record high last week.
The S+P 500 was unable to bounce from Monday’s sharp sell-off, with a key policy statement from the Federal Reserve on deck.
Most-active soybean futures slid nine cents to end at $16.98-1/2 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade (all figures US$). CBOT wheat settled 20-3/4 cents lower at $10.50-1/4 a bushel, while corn slipped one cent to $7.68-1/4 a bushel.
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Wheat futures felt additional pressure from seasonal selling at harvest time, analysts said, as heat in the U.S. Plains is hastening maturation of the winter wheat crop.
The winter wheat harvest was 10 per cent complete as of Sunday, up from five per cent a week earlier and behind the five-year average of 12 per cent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday.
Wheat futures will trade sideways as the harvest advances and market participants wait to get a better idea of global production, said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for StoneX.
“We’re chopping sideways until we know more,” Suderman said.
USDA on Monday rated 72 per cent of the U.S. corn crop in good to excellent condition, down one percentage point from a week earlier and below the average of estimates in a Reuters poll.
Heat is promoting rapid crop development in the Corn Belt, USDA said in a separate weather report on Tuesday.
The United States needs to produce a big crop as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted grain exports from the Black Sea and driven up food prices, analysts said. The war will create a global wheat shortage for at least three seasons, Ukraine’s agriculture minister told Reuters.
— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Polansek in Chicago; additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.
