Corn at 1-week low on improved supply outlook; wheat, soybeans drop

SINGAPORE: Chicago corn futures fell over 2% on Monday, hitting their lowest in more than a week, as improved outlook for supplies weighed on the market.

Wheat and soybeans slid about 2% each.

"We are in the US weather market and prices are volatile," said Pranav Bajoria, a director at Singapore-based brokerage Comglobal. "We are also seeing demand destruction at these high prices."

The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) lost 2.7% to $6.66-1/4 a bushel, as of 0219 GMT, after hitting its lowest since June 3 at $6.53 earlier in the session. The new-crop December corn futures lost 4.5%.

Wheat gave up 1.8% to $6.68-1/4 a bushel and soybeans fell 1.9% to $14.80-1/4 a bushel.

Forecasts of cooler US Midwest weather weighed on corn prices.

In South America, the late-planted Argentine corn is enjoying better-than-expected yields, prompting the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange to increase its 2020/21 harvest estimate to 48 million tonnes from a previously estimated 46 million tonnes.

About 37.8% of the crop has been brought in so far, the exchange said in its weekly report. Argentina, with its vast Pampas grains belt, is the world's No. 3 corn exporter.

Soybean and soyoil prices are being weighed down by a possible US move to reduce biodiesel production.

President Joe Biden's administration, under pressure from labour unions and US senators including from his home state of Delaware, is considering ways to provide relief to US oil refiners from biofuel blending mandates, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Russian agriculture consultancy Sovecon said on Friday that it had raised its forecast for the country's 2021 wheat crop by 1.5 million tonnes to 82.4 million tonnes.

The forecast was raised after rains in May improved the condition of winter wheat in Russia's south, the largest wheat producing and exporting region, Sovecon said in a note.

Large speculators cut their net long position in CBOT corn futures in the week ended June 8, regulatory data released on Friday showed.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and raised their net long position in soybeans.