Tight US presidential vote curbs price moves

PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago corn, wheat and soybean futures were little changed on Wednesday as a tight US presidential election encouraged grain markets to consolidate after recent price swings.

Soybeans edged up, underpinned by firm export demand and a rally in palm oil futures, another major oilseed market, while wheat and corn ticked down.

Crop weather risks remained a focus, particularly for corn and soybean crops in South America, and winter wheat in the United States and Russia.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.5% at $10.69 a bushel, as of 1154 GMT.

CBOT corn inched down 0.1% to $4.00-1/2 a bushel and wheat was down 0.4% at $6.05-3/4 a bushel.

Tuesday's US presidential election pitting President Donald Trump against Joe Biden proved far closer than polls had predicted, with decisive remaining results still pending and the prospect of court challenges looming.

"Until we get more news on the rest of the states we're going to see a bit of risk off," Matt Ammermann, a commodity risk manager at StoneX, said of the US election.

The election uncertainty coupled with beneficial rain for crops in Brazil may lead China to slow brisk recent purchases of US soybeans and corn, Ammermann said.

However, a La Nina weather pattern remains a risk for the South American growing season after recent dryness in Brazil and Argentina.

"If Brazil has one more (adverse) weather event, I think that could really push China to go and buy more from the US," Ammermann added.

In a sign of tight Brazilian supplies before the exporter's next harvest, a US grain export terminal is loading about 38,000 tonnes of US soybeans for shipment to Brazil, according to a Southport Agencies shipping lineup seen by Reuters.