CHICAGO: US soybean futures fell Friday on improved prospects for crop-saving rain in corn and soy areas of Argentina and southern Brazil, as well as a sharp drop in crude oil prices, traders said.
"The forecast has turned even wetter than Thursday's outlook, and only a few eastern areas (Argentina) appear at risk for lingering dry spots, 10 percent or less of corn and soy," said Joel Widenor, meteorologist for Commodity Weather Group.
Wheat and corn also fell, setting back from rallies on Thursday as traders locked in profits amid plentiful global supplies of wheat and expectations for large plantings of corn in the US come spring.
The market remained focused on the weather in South America after heat and dryness during the past month threatened to limit the size of the harvests and reduce exports from crop powerhouses Argentina and Brazil.
"The biggest constraint on price rises is that those production concerns in South America have eased compared with a fortnight ago," said Luke Mathews, Commodities Strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
At 10:06 a.m CST (1606 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade March soybean futures were down 11 cents at $11.86 a bushel. CBOT March wheat fell 6-1/4 cents to $5.99-1/2 a bushel.
The benchmark CBOT March corn contract lost 6 cents to $5.99-3/4 a bushel. Concerns that large plantings would boost domestic stocks after harvest this fall weighed on deferred month contracts.
For the week, CBOT soybeans were up 2.4 percent while corn was up 0.7 percent. Wheat has fallen 0.4 percent so far this week, tracking its third straight week of losses.
"You just cannot hold much on the rallies," said Greg Grow, director of agribusiness at Archer Financial Services. ". Probably there is a little reticence to take positions home over the weekend. Altogether, you are having a hard time finding any bullish inputs this morning."
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq edged lower on Friday after key corporate earnings reports fell short of expectations. Investors were waiting for a resolution in the latest round of Greek debt talks.
Argentina's government also said on Thursday that there would be losses in late-planted soy areas which have received practically no rain since they were sown.
"Markets will continue to focus on South American weather and future USDA cuts in Argentine/Brazilian corn production estimates cannot be ruled out," Jonathan Lane, trading manager of UK merchant Gleadell said in a market note on Friday.
Lane added, however, that "fundamentals of the market still point to abundant supplies of wheat and other feed-grains”.
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