PARIS/CANBERRA: Chicago soybeans eased back towards a two-year low on Wednesday as investors grappled with contrasting assessments of South American crops, while wheat edged up from a seven-week low as a clutch of import tenders boosted international demand.
Corn ticked down to trade near Friday’s three-year low as expectations of large global supplies pressured the market.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.7% at $12.18-1/4 a bushel by 1244 GMT to approach Friday’s two-year low of $12.03.
Rain in South America has improved the supply outlook for soybean and corn crops there, though analysts are continuing to cut forecasts for Brazil’s harvests due to earlier drought damage.
The US government, meanwhile, on Friday raised its estimates for US yield and production levels for recent US soybean and corn harvests.
“Expectations of big crops in South America have got everyone running for the hills,” said Ole Houe at IKON Commodities in Sydney. “The market is overshooting a bit,” he said.
An analyst at Argentina’s Rosario grains exchange said production forecasts for the country - currently at 52 million metric tons for soybeans and 59 million tons for corn - would likely continue to rise.
Harvest estimates in Brazil have also become more optimistic after a dry period ended, although a grain farmers’ association on Tuesday forecast a 135-million-ton soybean crop, far below a government estimate of 155 million tons.
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