SINGAPORE: Chicago corn lost more ground on Monday and soybeans slid 1% as a stronger dollar and expectations of record US supplies provided headwinds to prices.
Wheat fell for a third session as prices retreated further from a near four-month high reached last week. The US dollar is a key factor driving prices lower, according to a Singapore-based grains trader who requested anonymity. Buying in the physical market for US cargoes is going to be subdued due to the dollar, which will pressure prices, he said.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.7% at $4.22 a bushel, as of 0209 GMT, having dropped to its lowest since Sept. 30 at $4.21 a bushel earlier in the session. Soybeans lost 1% to $10.27-1/2 a bushel, after sliding earlier on Monday to $10.27 a bushel, the weakest since Sept. 23 and wheat fell 0.8% to $5.85-1/4 a bushel.
A stronger dollar, which makes US products expensive for buyers holding other currencies, weighed on agricultural commodities amid a forecast of bumper US supplies.
Japan’s yen fell to its lowest in nearly two months and other major currencies too were grappling with losses as the dollar extended a rally sparked by Friday’s strong US jobs data and an escalation in the Middle East conflict.
US farmers and merchants are sitting on the highest stocks of grains and soybeans left over from previous harvests in four years as they start harvesting one of their largest soybean and corn crops on record. US farmers and merchants held 1.76 billion bushels of corn, as of Sept. 1, up 29% year-on-year and the most since 2020. Losses in the wheat market were limited by concerns about dry weather in the Black Sea region, and the latest Russian attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure.
Weather conditions in September remained unfavourable for an already-started winter grain sowing in Ukraine, APK-Inform agriculture consultancy quoted state weather forecasters as saying. Farmers had harvested just 2% of this year’s grain maize crop by Sept. 30, well behind the usual pace, data showed on Friday, as rain continued to hamper field work in the European Union’s biggest grain producer. US dock workers and port operators reached a tentative deal that will immediately end a crippling three-day strike that has shut down shipping on the US East Coast and Gulf Coast, the two sides said Thursday.
Large speculators trimmed their net short positions in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures in the week ended Oct. 1, 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 positions in CBOT wheat and trimmed their net short positions in soybeans.
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