Chicago wheat falls to two-month lows on ample supply, corn and soybeans also down

BEIJING/HAMBURG: Chicago wheat futures fell to their lowest level in around two months on Monday, pressured by abundant global supplies, weak demand for U.S. exports and the advancing harvest in the U.S. Plains.

Corn and soybeans also dropped, with markets shrugging off rising crude oil prices after Israeli strikes on Iran and Lebanon.

Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat fell 0.2% to $5.78-1/2 a bushel at 1131 GMT, extending losses to a seventh consecutive session.

Soybeans fell 0.7% to $11.12-3/4 a bushel, corn fell 1% to $4.13-1/4 a bushel after earlier hitting a new life-of-contract low of $4.12-1/2 a bushel.

Prospects for large Northern Hemisphere crops continued to weigh on wheat despite a drought-diminished U.S. winter crop.

“Wheat is seeing some supportive buying interest after recent price falls but wheat still faces headwinds from prospects for large global new crop supplies with weather in Europe and the Black Sea looking non-threatening and U.S. (harvest) fears already traded,” said Matt Ammermann, commodity risk manager at StoneX.

“Crop prospects in Russia and Ukraine remain positive, potentially creating more export competition to U.S. supplies.”

APK-Inform agriculture consultancy said on Sunday it revised up its forecast of Ukraine’s wheat harvest to 21.7 million metric tons from 19.9 million tons.

“Corn and soybeans are down despite a sharp rise in crude oil. Markets seem to have ‘headline-fatigue’, not reacting to the repeated news about the Iran-Israel conflict,” Ammermann said. “Meanwhile, U.S. Midwest weather is fine for corn and soybeans with rain forecast.”

Dealers are also still awaiting signs of renewed Chinese buying of U.S. soybeans and corn, which is still not visible despite the announcement in May that China would buy $17 billion worth of U.S. farm products a year on top of the 25 million tons of soybeans already committed, he said.