Chicago | Reuters – U.S. grain futures stumbled on Thursday amid positioning ahead of a federal crop report next week that is expected to show bigger estimates for the nation’s corn and soybean harvests, analysts said.
Losses pulled wheat back further from a nine-year high reached on Tuesday at the Chicago Board of Trade. Corn retreated from a 2-1/2-month high set on Tuesday.
Traders adjusted positionings before the U.S. Department of Agriculture issues a monthly supply/demand report on Nov. 9. A rise in the dollar helped pressure crop prices, traders said.
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“We’ve had a good little run” in the grain markets, said Jim Gerlach, president of broker A/C Trading.
Most-active wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed 7-1/4 cents lower at $7.73-3/4 a bushel.
K.C. hard red winter wheat fell 4-3/4 cents to end at $7.86 a bushel, while the front-month MGEX spring wheat contract sank 27 cents to $10.17 a bushel.
CBOT corn settled 4-3/4 cents weaker at $5.59-1/4 a bushel. Soybean futures tumbled 21-1/2 cents to $12.22-3/4 a bushel.
The USDA on Tuesday is expected to raise its estimates for U.S. corn and soy yields and production slightly from October, according to a Reuters poll of analysts. On average, they expect the agency to increase estimates for U.S. soybean ending stocks but trim the corn carryout.
Weekly U.S. export sales data for wheat, corn and soybeans, issued Thursday by the USDA, were toward the high end of analyst estimates.
“They were solid,” Gerlach said.
Wheat contributed to a new 10-year high for prices for global food commodities in October and was expected to fuel record cereal trade this year, the U.N. food agency said.
Dry growing conditions for recently sown winter crops in Russia and Ukraine have added to supply concerns in top exporting countries following poor spring wheat harvests this year.
– Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Colin Packham in Canberra
