Chicago corn falls ahead of USDA's supply demand report

BEIJING: Chicago Board of Trade corn futures fell on Wednesday as traders monitored Black Sea conflicts and adjusted positions ahead of Friday’s widely anticipated US Department of Agriculture supply and demand report. Soybeans and wheat also dropped.

The most-traded corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) fell 0.8% to $5.29-1/4 a bushel by 0307 GMT. CBOT dropped 0.6% to $7.42-3/4 a bushel, while soybeans fell 0.5% to $13.10-1/4 a bushel.

Grain markets are also turning their attention towards monthly USDA supply-and-demand forecasts due this Friday as expectations for poor yields in the US corn Belt have kept a floor on corn futures.

Weather in the US Midwest will mostly remain warmer and drier in the coming weeks, limiting harvest slowdowns and frost risks, according to forecaster Commodity Weather Group.

The USDA last Friday reported that 5% of the US corn crop had been harvested, with 56% of the crop in good-excellent condition.

On Tuesday, Commodity brokerage StoneX lowered its estimate of the average US 2026 corn yield to 182.9 bushels per acre (bpa) from 184.8 in its previous monthly report released on August 4.

Meanwhile, market participants remain on edge over the risks of a prolonged interruption to Russian and Ukrainian grain exports from the Black Sea region.

US peace envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv over the weekend, but their diplomatic efforts did not appear to secure a breakthrough in ending the war.

Ukraine, a top grain producer, has almost completed its 2026 wheat harvest, producing 24.91 million metric tons of the grain at an average yield of 4.94 tons per hectare, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.

For soybeans, China said its August imports fell 1.1% in August from a year earlier to 12.14 million tons.

From January to August, China’s purchases totalled 74.11 million tons, up 1.1% from 73.33 million tons a year earlier, data from the country’s General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday.

Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn and net buyers of wheat, traders said on Tuesday.