SINGAPORE: Chicago soybeans slid on Thursday from the previous session’s two-week top, although the decline was limited by a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast of lower harvest.
Wheat gained for the first time in three sessions on concerns over tightening US inventories, while corn was largely unchanged.
“The report news came as a bullish surprise,” according to a Hightower report, referring to the USDA’s forecast on soybeans.
“Traders expected a drop in demand for US soybeans, but this was totally offset by a surprise drop in production.”
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) lost 0.3% to $13.92 a bushel, as of 0337 GMT, after hitting its highest since Sept. 30 at $14.14 a bushel on Wednesday.
Wheat climbed 1% to $8.91-1/4 a bushel and corn was unmoved at $6.93 a bushel.
In its monthly supply-and-demand report, the USDA said on Wednesday the country’s corn and soybean crops would be smaller than previously forecast, raising concerns about tight global inventories.
CBOT soybeans may retest support at $13.65
Analysts, on average, had expected a corn production cut but a rise in the soybean crop.
The agency pegged US soybean yield at 49.8 bushels per acre, lower than 50.5 last month and the trade guess of 50.6, cutting production more than 3% from 2021 to 4.3 billion bushels.
The government also cut its outlook for the domestic stockpile of wheat to the lowest in 15 years.
It said ending stocks of wheat for the 2022/23 marketing year would total 576 million bushels, down 13.9% from a year earlier and the smallest since 306 million bushels in 2007/08.
The market is monitoring grain shipments from the Black Sea region after an escalation in Russian missile strikes on Ukraine.
Farm office FranceAgriMer on Wednesday raised its forecast for French soft wheat exports outside the European Union, now seen 15% above the last season, but said sales would depend on whether a Ukrainian grain export corridor was extended.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT soybean and soymeal futures on Wednesday and net sellers of corn and wheat, traders said. They were net even in soyoil futures.
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