CHICAGO: US corn futures fell for the third day in a row on Thursday, with good weather for crop development in the U.S. Midwest and poor exports pushing prices to their lowest in nearly two years.
Wheat futures also weakened but soybeans firmed, supported by signs that overseas buyers were looking to the United States to fill gaps caused by shortfalls in the Argentine crop, traders said.
The latest U.S. weather view calls for high temperatures currently hovering over the Corn Belt to quickly moderate, with some beneficial rains also in the mix for the weekend.
"Right now they are focusing on mostly normal temperatures after this heat rolls through, which is only going to last two to three days," said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading in Fowler, Indiana. "Most areas should be just fine."
At 9:48 a.m. CDT (1448 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade December corn futures were down 4 cents at $3.40-1/4 a bushel. The most active contract bottomed out at $3.39-1/2 a bushel, its lowest since Oct. 20, 2014.
"We are in a bearish market, the USDA reports have been showing pretty high crop ratings for soybeans and corn," said Kaname Gokon at brokerage Okato Shoji Co in Tokyo. "Looks like it will be an early harvest this year which will keep pressure on the market."
A weekly U.S. Agriculture Department report said that old-crop corn export sales came in at 345,100 tonnes in the seven days ended July 14, down from 667,777 tonnes a week earlier, and new-crop sales of 506,300, down from 687,843 tonnes. The old-crop figure was below market forecasts. New-crop corn export sales were in line with expectations.
New-crop soybean export sales totalled a bigger-than-expected 1.002 million tonnes, sharply up from 547,046 tonnes a week earlier. Old-crop soybean sales were 325,000 tonnes.
CBOT November soybeans were up 5-1/2 cents at $10.14-1/2 a bushel.
The contract struggled to hold support above its 100-day moving average, which it briefly rallied through before retreating from session highs. It closed below that key technical point for the first time since March 3 on Wednesday.
CBOT September soft red winter wheat was down 3 cents at $4.10 a bushel.
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