SINGAPORE: Chicago soybeans ticked lower on Wednesday, giving up some of the previous session’s sharp gains, although expectations of strong demand provided a floor under the market. Wheat dropped 1%, falling for a second consecutive session and corn slid.
“We expect a recovery in Chinese demand as the travel resumes,” said one Singapore-based trader.
“China’s soybean imports in he first few months of 2023 are likely to be higher than what we have seen in the last few months.”
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) gave up 0.2% to $14.77 a bushel, as of 0517 GMT, after gaining 1.6% on Tuesday.
Wheat lost 1% to $7.43 a bushel and corn was down 0.7% to $6.49-1/4 a bushel. Forecasts for more rains in Argentina and Brazil are easing concerns over dryness hurting newly planted crops.
Soybeans slip further from 3-month top, wheat rebounds
On the demand front, private exporters reported the sale of 140,000 tonnes of soybeans to unknown destinations in the 2023/24 marketing year, the US Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday morning. It was the first so-called “flash sale” in a week.
In the wheat market, news that Ukraine’s port of Odesa had suspended operations on Sunday after Russian strikes on energy supplies put attention back on risks to wartime grain shipments.
The port resumed activity on Monday.
France’s farm ministry on Tuesday estimated that the area sown with soft wheat for the 2023 harvest will increase to 4.75 million hectares, 1.7% higher compared with the area harvested this year.
Indian wheat stocks held in government warehouses for December fell to the lowest in six years, government data showed on Tuesday.
Wheat reserves in state stores totalled 19 million tonnes at the start of this month, down from 37.85 million tonnes on Dec. 1, 2021.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT soybean, soymeal and soyoil futures contracts on Tuesday and net sellers of CBOT corn and wheat, traders said.
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