US corn, soyabean and wheat futures were narrowly lower on Wednesday as investors squared positions ahead of US Department of Agriculture plantings and grain stocks data on Friday, traders and analysts said. Each commodity was holding above multimonth lows reached earlier this week. Wheat and corn both pared earlier gains that were linked to short-covering.
USDA is expected to show increased US soyabean plantings and reduced seedings of corn as well as bigger year-on-year US stockpiles of corn, soyabeans and wheat as of March 1, according to analysts polled by Reuters. "It looks like people are waiting for what the USDA has to say and not doing much until then," said Jack Scoville, analyst at the Price Futures Group. "It's been a pretty low-volume affair the last couple of days; today doesn't seem any different." Outlooks for crop-friendly rainfall in the southern US Plains wheat belt has weighed on wheat futures so far this week while bumper soyabean and corn harvests in South America continued to anchor prices for those crops. Chicago Board of Trade May corn futures were down 1/2 cent at $3.57-1/4 per bushel at 11:45 a.m. CDT (1645 GMT). CBOT May soyabeans were off 2-3/4 cents at $9.69-1/4 per bushel and CBOT May wheat 1-1/4 cents lower at $4.23-1/4.
Prices were higher for MGEX spring wheat and CBOT soyameal futures. Malaysian palm oil futures gained overnight. Analysts said forecasts for wet weather across key US growing regions would likely limit support. "There are forecasts for rains over the next three or four days, which will aid crop development. The fundamentals remain bearish," Andrew Woodhouse, grains analyst at Advance Trading Australasia, said.
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