Corn, soybeans decline as US crop ratings top expectations

SINGAPORE: Chicago corn and soybeans slid on Tuesday as better-than-expected US crop ratings weighed on prices, which climbed to multi-month highs in the previous session on strong demand and renewed fighting in the Middle East.

Wheat prices inched up on worries about Black Sea shipments as escalating attacks on grain cargoes provided support.

“Crop ratings have come in better than what the market expected,” said one agricultural commodities trader.

“US weather remains the focus for the coming weeks as crops mature,” The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) fell 0.4% to $4.71-1/4 a bushel, as of 0330 GMT, having climbed to its highest since May 20 on Monday, while soybeans gave up 0.3% to $12.23 a bushel, having reached their highest since May 13 in the last session.

Wheat rose 0.04% to $6.74-1/4 a bushel.

Chicago soybeans, corn fall on improving US crop conditions

The US Department of Agriculture on Monday kept condition ratings for the nation’s corn and soybean crops mostly steady from the previous week, surpassing analyst expectations from a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.

The agency pegged condition ratings for the US corn crop at 67%, one percentage point below the previous week’s rating.

Analysts had expected the agency would peg corn ratings at 66%. It said 66% of the US soybean crop is in good-excellent condition, up a percentage point from the previous week and above analyst expectations.

Wheat prices rose to a two-year high last week after attacks on grain ships and ports in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov by Ukraine and Russia.

Russian wheat export prices surged amid difficult shipping conditions in the Black Sea and a new wave of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, analysts said on Monday.

A Russian missile strike on a ship carrying corn near Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa killed 10 people, Ukrainian officials said on Monday, in the deadliest attack in a weeks-long flare-up of violence in the Black Sea.