PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago grain and soybean futures edged lower on Friday as a day-earlier rally sparked by some lower-than-expected US government crop estimates stalled in the face of hefty global supplies.
The Chicago Board of Trade most-active soybean contract was down 0.5 percent at $10.35-1/2 by 1201 GMT. It had closed up nearly 3 percent on Thursday after touching a three-week high following the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop data.
CBOT's soft red winter wheat benchmark was down 0.2 percent at $4.25-1/4 a bushel but its hard red winter wheat futures edged up 0.5 percent to $4.46-3/4, reflecting a particularly steep drop in HRW area in the USDA sowing estimates.
Corn was down 0.3 percent at $3.57-1/4 a bushel.
"On balance the USDA's ... reports were considered slightly bullish," Rabobank analysts said in a note, adding, however, that the publication "confirms overall large US and global supply of grains and oilseeds".
Soybeans had led gains on Thursday after the US Department of Agriculture trimmed its estimates of 2016/17 US soybean yield, production and ending stocks by more than anticipated.
Wheat was lifted by a smaller than expected estimate of US winter wheat sowings, which the USDA pegged at their lowest level in more than a century.
"A response to depressed price levels, this 10 percent year-on-year cut (in wheat area) brings about the first step towards a US supply and demand deficit in 2017/18," Rabobank said.
"Hard red winter wheat was hit hardest, with the key producing state of Kansas projected to cut 13 percent off new crop acres."
However, in a reminder of large supplies, the USDA also raised its outlook for global wheat stocks and Brazil's soybean crop to new records.
Long queues of trucks loaded with soybeans have been forming in front of elevators in the heart of Brazil's grain belt this week, a sign that harvesting is speeding up and will soon pour onto the market in a challenge to US exports.
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