U.S. grains: Grains ease on technical selling, export demand uncertainty

Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Board of Trade corn futures eased on Friday on technical selling and disappointment in the size of weekly export sales, analysts said.

Soybeans faced pressure from profit-taking in soymeal and soyoil futures, and wheat futures turned lower on sluggish exports, said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Consulting.

“Global trade on wheat is stagnant right now, so there’s no urgency in the market to extend coverage,” Setzer said.

The most-active CBOT corn contract Cv1 settled down 1-1/2 cents at $4.42 a bushel, rising 0.45 per cent for the week.

The contract had reached its highest since late June at $4.51-1/4 on Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its estimate for U.S. end-of-season corn stockpiles to 1.738 billion bushels from 1.938 billion.

But USDA weekly export data on Thursday showed net U.S. corn sales at 946,900 metric tons, below analyst forecasts for at least 1.1 million tons.

Most-active soybeans Sv1 closed down 7-1/2 cents to $9.88-1/4 a bushel, falling 0.55 per cent for the week. CBOT wheat Wv1 slipped 6-1/4 cents to end at $5.52-1/4 a bushel, losing 0.90 per cent for the week.

Growing uncertainty over China’s import needs going into next year also weighed on grain and oilseed markets, Setzer said.

China’s total grain production reached a record of more than 700 million tons in 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday, as Beijing moved to boost output as part of a broader effort to be less reliant on food imports.

Uncertainty over the flow of future U.S. exports to Canada, another key market, also pressured futures, Setzer said.

Trade tensions between the countries are heating up, after Canada vowed it would retaliate against U.S. tariffs and Ontario Premier Doug Ford said energy exports to the U.S. could be halted.

—Reporting by Renee Hickman and P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Peter Hobson in Canberra