SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean futures ticked higher on Friday but the market is set for its first weekly drop in four, as harvest of an all time-high Brazilian crop kept a lid on prices.
Wheat and corn were little changed with both markets set to end the week in a negative territory. “There is a lot of product coming to the market in Brazil,” said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.
“Pressure from big Brazilian crop is filtering though the futures market.”
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) added 0.3% to $15.31 a bushel as of 0314 GMT, wheat was flat at $7.65 a bushel and corn lost quarter of a cent to $6.75-3/4 a bushel.
For week, soybeans are down 0.8%, wheat has lost 2.7% and corn have given up 0.7%. The soybean harvest is under way in Brazil.
Consultancy AgRural lowered its forecast of Brazil’s soybean crop to 150.9 million tonnes, down from 152.9 million previously, but still the largest on record, if realized.
However, early frosts in the coming days could hurt Argentina’s already beleaguered soy and corn crops in the south of the country’s main farming region, the Buenos Aires grains exchange said Thursday in a report.
Argentina’s worst drought in six decades has already forced farmers to delay planting this season’s soy and corn crops, lowering expectations for the season’s yields.
The US Department of Agriculture is expected to release unofficial forecasts for 2023 plantings and production of major US crops at its annual two-day Outlook Forum next week.
Soybeans firm; record Brazilian supplies, strong dollar limit gains
The International Grains Council (IGC) on Thursday cut its forecast for 2022/23 global corn production by eight million tonnes to 1.153 billion tonnes.
The cut was mainly driven by downward revisions for the United States and Argentina, the IGC said in a monthly update. The inter-governmental body also maintained its 2022/23 world wheat crop outlook at 796 million tonnes.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT wheat and corn futures contracts on Thursday and net buyers of soybean, soyoil and soymeal futures, traders said.
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