US grains were lower on Wednesday, with both corn and wheat easing more than 1 percent, putting them on pace for their second straight session of declines on pressure from the advancing corn harvest and plentiful global grain supplies. Soyabeans were narrowly lower at the Chicago Board of Trade. Volumes were light as investors awaited news from the Federal Reserve, which was weighing the first US interest rate hike since 2006 during a two-day meeting.
Traders also were digesting US Department of Agriculture data released at midmorning showing increased "prevented planting" acres from a month ago, grounds that farmers were unable to sow with corn, soyabeans and wheat earlier this year. The USDA data contributes to the agency's monthly supply and demand forecasts, the next of which will be released on October 9.
"It's risky to draw conclusions and it's a really small adjustment from the August data," Arlan Suderman, analyst at brokerage Water Street Solutions, said of the USDA data. CBOT December corn was down 6-1/4 cents at $3.84-1/4 per bushel as of 11:10 am CDT (1610 GMT), still near the one-month high reached early on Tuesday. CBOT December wheat was down 10-1/4 cents at $4.84-1/2 per bushel and CBOT November soyabeans were off 4 cents at $8.85.
Soyabeans earlier rose on support from a separate USDA announcement that exporters sold 184,500 tonnes of US soyabeans to China, the second export sale of at least 180,000 tonnes of soyabeans in less than a week. Chinese buyers also were expected to sign deals to purchase millions of tonnes of US soyabeans during President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States next week.