Corn, soyabeans slip as investors book profits

Corn and soyabeans fell on Wednesday as investors booked profits from recent gains, and with huge US crops slowly coming off fields. Chicago wheat rose on technical buying. The rally was due to end, some said, after corn touched a seven-week high and soyabeans notched a five-week top earlier in Wednesday's session.
Roy Huckabay with the Linn Group, a Chicago brokerage, said earlier strength in the interior Midwest cash market for soyabeans, meal and corn looked short-lived. "I get the impression that we are just a matter of days away from basis levels imploding and having big issues with plugged space," he said. "I think there are a lot of places that beans (are) in spaces dedicated to corn, and they are going to have to move it to make room for the corn harvest."
The corn harvest was 31 percent complete as of Sunday, the US Department of Agriculture said this week, up from 24 percent a week earlier and below the average of 53 percent. Nearby Chicago Board of Trade December corn slipped 3 cents to $3.53 per bushel. November soyabeans eased 1-1/2 cents to $9.62-3/4 a bushel, having climbed 2.1 percent on Tuesday.
Despite giving up earlier gains, soyabeans are underpinned by strong demand and concerns about a late United States harvest and delayed planting in Brazil. "It's a period of time where there's just huge demand for beans," said Bill Nelson, oilseed analyst at Doane Advisory Services. "And there's a little challenge with the late harvest, acquiring those beans and getting them out" to buyers. The US Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday that private exporters reported sales of 419,000 tonnes of US soyabeans to China and 113,000 tonnes of soyabeans to unknown destinations, all for delivery in 2014/15.
US farmers had harvested 53 percent of their soyabean crop as of Sunday, up from 40 percent a week earlier but below the five-year average of 66 percent, according to USDA. Brazil's soya planting is 10 percent complete for the 2014-15 crop, the slowest for this time of year since the 2008-09 season, consultancy AgRural said on Monday. Parts of Brazil are dry, but meteorologists said widespread rains should spread over all of the country's grain, coffee and sugar-growing areas next week. Chicago December wheat added 3 cents to $5.22-1/4 a bushel on technical buying. Traders said wheat pared its gains as corn and soyabeans retreated.