CHICAGO: US corn futures plunged by as much as the daily trading limit on Friday after the US Department of Agriculture shocked traders with an unexpected increase to its 2026 US harvest outlook.
Soybeans and wheat followed corn lower, pressured by the USDA’s stock forecast increases for the two crops. The USDA forecast the US corn harvest at 16.034 billion bushels, up from its outlook for 15.800 billion a month ago, with an average yield of 181.2 bushels per acre, up from 178.5 bpa previously. The revision swelled its end-of-season stocks outlook by 282 million bushels from a month earlier.
Analysts polled by Reuters, on average, expected production and average yield estimates to decrease following adverse crop weather this summer. “To have USDA find the increased production this year was a shock.
And in fact, as much as they did was a real big shock. So it was a negative report, obviously, and the market is reacting in a negative way,” said Jack Scoville, analyst with The Price Group. Benchmark Chicago Board of Trade December corn futures were down 29-1/2 cents at a two-month low of USD4.70-3/4 per bushel at 11:50 a.m. CDT (1650 GMT) after sinking by as much as the daily 30-cent limit following the report. March futures were also briefly limit-down.
November soybeans were down 16-1/2 cents at USD12.71 a bushel, a six-week low, while December wheat was down 19-3/4 cents at a two-month low of USD6.63-1/2 a bushel.
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