Corn plunges

US corn futures plunged more than 6 percent on Thursday and wheat fell 5.6 percent in their steepest slide in 3-1/2 months after the US Department of Agriculture forecast supplies well above trade expectations in its closely watched January crop report.
Soyabeans shed 1.7 percent as the USDA also boosted its outlook for end-of-season supplies of the oilseed, sending prices down for the fifth time in the last six sessions. Corn dropped by its 40-cent daily trading limit, continuing a streak of six straight years in which USDA's January crop report has triggered a limit move, either up or down.
Wheat tumbled as the global stockpile of wheat was forecast to remain near a record high and as US farmers boosted winter wheat seedings to the most in three years. Crop-boosting rains in drought-hit Argentina added further pressure to grains markets which just last week hit two-month highs. Corn led grains lower as reports of a corn crop damaged beyond repair in Argentina, the world's No 2 exporter, had most traders expecting a far less optimistic USDA report.
"The trade was coming in looking for some pretty bullish numbers for the corn market. We did not get that," said Terry Roggensack, analyst with The Hightower Report. The USDA estimated US corn quarterly stocks as of December 1 at 9.642 billion bushels, well above estimates for 9.391 billion, suggesting corn use has been far lighter than expected.
USDA only modestly lowered its US corn end-of-season stocks forecast, which remained the smallest in 16 years, but the projection was a whopping 13 percent above the average analyst estimate. March corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell 40 cents to $6.11-1/2, a 6.1 percent drop and the lowest since December 22. Daily limits will expand to 60 cents on Friday per exchange rules.
CBOT March soyabeans fell for a third consecutive day, dropping 20-1/2 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $11.82-1/2 a bushel. Wednesday's 2.3 percent slide in soyabeans blunted the impact of the bearish USDA data on Thursday, which showed an unexpected jump in US ending stocks due to lower demand and higher production.
CBOT March wheat fell 36 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $6.05 in the steepest drop in 3-1/2 months on the bearish USDA data, although late session buying by index funds, which are rebalancing their portfolios this week, pared earlier losses. USDA estimated winter wheat planting in the United States at a three-year high and global stocks at a 12 year high and the second largest in at least 50 years, according to USDA Foreign Agriculture Service data.