Soybeans hit 6-week low on record US crop outlook, wheat drops for 6th session

PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean futures dipped to their lowest in six weeks on Monday, falling for the fourth time in five sessions, as expectations of a record US crop weighed on the market.

Wheat slid for the sixth consecutive session on the lack of demand for US cargoes despite tightening world supplies, while corn followed the bearish move after closing slightly higher on Friday.

The Chicago Board of Trade most-active soybean contract fell 1.7 percent to $8.41 a bushel by 1110 GMT, after hitting a low of $8.39-3/4 a bushel earlier in the session, the weakest level since July 16.

Wheat gave up 1.4 percent to $5.29 a bushel, while corn was down 0.8 percent at $3.59-3/4 a bushel.

"Soybean prices are under pressure as we have the Pro Farmer tour predicting even higher yields than record outlook given by the US agriculture department," said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.

"Wheat has support from tighter world supplies but the market needs more bullish news - such as a pick up in US exports - to rise."

Advisory service Pro Farmer, a division of Farm Journal Media, on Friday projected 2018 US soybean production would reach a record 4.683 billion bushels, based on an average yield of 53 bushels per acre.

Pro Farmer's soybean crop forecast topped the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) already record outlook for a crop of 4.586 billion bushels, as last week's crop tour found larger-than-expected soy pod counts in all states surveyed.

Wheat faces pressure from weak demand for US cargoes. The USDA on Thursday reported export sales of US wheat in the week to Aug. 16 of 239,800 tonnes, below trade forecasts and a six-week low.

The decline in wheat futures comes despite tightening global supplies with lower production in Europe, the Black Sea region and Australia.

In Germany, the agriculture ministry forecast the country's 2018 winter wheat harvest would fall 19.1 percent from 2017 to 19.4 million tonnes after crops suffered from drought and hot weather.

The ministry also forecast Germany's 2018 grains harvest would be 34.5 million tonnes, down 15.8 percent on the year.

Large speculators trimmed their net short position in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures in the week to Aug. 21, 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, cut their net long position in CBOT wheat and trimmed their net short position in soybeans.