CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures sagged on Thursday, consolidating below an earlier one-week high as traders assessed reduced harvest prospects in major exporting countries.

Corn and soybean futures were little changed after topping two-week highs.

Traders focused on global supply risks for wheat as Strategie Grains sharply lowered its projection for world output, partly due to a reduced estimate for the European Union.

Earlier this week, Statistics Canada issued lower-than-expected estimates for Canadian wheat production, while France reduced its soft wheat crop estimate. In Russia, analysts said farmers are expected to sow less winter wheat for next year’s harvest.

“The wheat market took a step back from recent moves higher from production cuts to the US, Canadian, EU and Black Sea wheat crops,” CHS Hedging said in a note.

Most-active CBOT wheat was down 2-3/4 cents at $7.09-1/2 a bushel by 10:30 a.m. CDT (1530 GMT). It earlier rose to $7.16-3/4, its highest since Sept. 8.

The market is seeing “consolidating type trading after recent strength,” CHS Hedging said.

CBOT soybeans were down 1/2-cent at $12.94 a bushel, while corn slipped 1 cent to $5.32-1/2 a bushel. Both earlier touched their highest prices since Aug. 31.

Traders were monitoring early US corn yield reports.

The US Department of Agriculture reported China bought 132,000 tonnes of US soybeans after canceling the same volume on Wednesday.

Comments

Comments are closed.