U.S. grains: Soy futures weaken on improving weather

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell for the second day in a row on Tuesday, pressured by improving weather for harvest in the U.S. Midwest as well as rain forecasts that will boost early crop development in Brazil, traders said.

“We are leaking lower,” said Brian Rydlund, a broker at CHS Hedging. “We have got guys (farmers) really getting after the beans, which pressures the market a bit. Brazil been noticeably dry and it looks like that pattern is going to change.”

Wheat futures edged higher, finding support from technical buyers near the low hit on Monday, while corn was close to unchanged.

Chicago Board of Trade soybeans for November delivery dropped 6-1/4 cents to settle at $9.84-3/4 a bushel (all figures US$).

“Soybeans are seeing a continued pullback in selling from the $10 a bushel level we reached after the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) cut its forecast of U.S. crop yields last week,” said Matt Ammermann, commodity risk manager at INTL FCStone. “The $10 level is important psychologically and I think there needs to be a considerable level of fear in the market about crops to sustain it.”

“The fear is not present today. Market focus is now turning to the South American soybean planting season and we are currently seeing some more crop-friendly weather forecasts in Brazil.”

CBOT December wheat futures were down 1-3/4 cents at $4.34-3/4 a bushel and CBOT December corn was 1/2 cent lower at $3.50 a bushel.

The outlook for dry weather in the U.S. Midwest added some pressure to the beans as farmers were expected to catch up to their typical harvest schedule in the coming weeks. Wet conditions have prevented some farmers across the region from accessing their fields in the past week.

“This should be a hot week for cutting beans, with nary a drop of rain forecast for the entire belt until we get to Friday afternoon, and then pretty limited amounts for the bulk of the harvest areas until the middle of next week,” Charlie Sernatinger, global head of grain futures at ED+F Man Capital, said in a note.

USDA said in its U.S. crop report on Monday that 28 per cent of U.S. corn has been harvested as of Sunday, behind market expectations of 31 per cent, and up only six percentage points from the previous week.

Harvesting of the U.S. soybean crop was 49 per cent complete, matching analysts’ expectations.

— Mark Weinraub is a Reuters correspondent covering grain markets from Chicago; additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.