GRAINS: Futures jump to multi-year highs after USDA cuts supply outlook

SINGAPORE: Chicago corn jumped 4% on Wednesday to a 7-1/2-year high and soybeans climbed to their loftiest since June 2014 after a widely watched US report reduced its forecast for global supplies.

Wheat rose for a second straight session to its highest since 2014.

"The January WASDE (World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates) report released by the US Department of Agriculture today was outright bullish for row crop markets," Citi Research said in a note.

"As discussed in our Commodities Flows report at the beginning of this week, we lifted the 6-12 month point-price targets for CBOT corn and soybeans by $1/bushel and $2/bushel to $6/bushel and $16/bushel, respectively."

The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 3% at $5.33-1/2 a bushel, as of 0225 GMT, after climbing to its highest since mid-2013 at $5.39 a bushel.

Soybeans were up 0.6% at $14.27-1/4 a bushel, after climbing to their highest since June 2014 at $14.37 a bushel. Wheat was up 0.3% at $6.67-1/2 a bushel, not far from a 2014 peak of $6.76 a bushel scaled earlier in the session.

US soybean and corn supplies in September will be smaller than previously forecast due to a reduced estimate of last fall's harvest, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Tuesday.

The crop revisions will intensify fears of shortages in 2021, after governments tried to lock in extra food supplies amid the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted global supply chains and thinned US stockpiles.

The agency pegged the 2020 US corn harvest at 14.182 billion bushels based on an average yield of 172.0 bushels per acre and soybean production at 4.135 billion bushels on a yield of 50.2 bushels. All were below average trade expectations, particularly in the case of corn.

The USDA also forecast end-of-season corn and wheat supplies below trade estimates, and confirmed investor fears of the tightest US soybean stocks in seven years.

It also lowered its forecasts for upcoming harvests in key export countries Brazil and Argentina.

Argentina said on Tuesday it lifted a 30,000-tonne-per-day limit recently placed on corn exports, which had caused farmers to go on a sales strike in protest.

Growers have withheld crops from market since early Monday, angered by what they said was overzealous intervention in the markets. The government said the curb was intended to ensure ample domestic food supplies and stable prices.

Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, wheat, soybean, soymeal and soyoil futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said.