SINGAPORE, Nov 20: U.S. Corn rose for a second session on Wednesday, extending gains to more than 1.5 percent on short-covering and buying by end-users after prices slid to a three-year low the day before.
Wheat edged down after gaining the most in more than a month on Tuesday, driven by bargain-hunting, while soybeans inched higher on strong demand.
Chicago Board of Trade December corn had climbed 0.1 percent to $4.18 a bushel by 0314 GMT, after firming 1.4 percent on Tuesday.
January soybeans eased half a cent to $12.75-3/4 a bushel and December wheat was down 0.2 percent at $6.49-1/4 a bushel.
‘We have seen a recovery in corn prices, but the reality is that the bear market in corn persists as we continue to see a very significant rebound in global supplies,’ said Luke Mathews, commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
‘It is simply a reflection of some of the traders taking profits off the table.’
Commodity funds bought a net 8,000 CBOT corn contracts on Tuesday, trade sources said. They bought 3,000 wheat and sold 5,000 soybean.
Dry weather into midweek will allow a rapid windup of record corn harvesting in most areas of the U.S. Midwest, followed by widespread rainfall later in the week, an agricultural meteorologist said.
MDA Weather Services said Midwest weather will turn wet by Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday that private exporters reported the sale of 240,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China, but that delivery was not scheduled until the next marketing year.
U.S. Wheat continues to face competition from cheaper supplies in the Black Sea region.
Egypt’s GASC on Tuesday bought 120,000 tonnes of Russian wheat for shipment in December, the second deal for the world’s largest importer of wheat in the past week.
The USDA said on Monday afternoon that the winter wheat crop was rated 63 percent good to excellent, down 2 percentage points from a week earlier.
Prices at 0314 GMT
Contract Last Change Pct chg Two-day chg MA 30 RSI CBOT wheat 649.25 -1.00 -0.15% +0.74% 672.48 41 CBOT corn 418.00 0.25 +0.06% -0.95% 432.38 39 CBOT soy 1275.75 -0.50 -0.04% -0.37% 1277.08 43 CBOT rice $15.80 -$0.04 -0.28% +0.19% $15.45 58 WTI crude $93.65 $0.31 +0.33% +0.67% $96.91 40 Currencies Euro/dlr $1.356 $0.006 +0.42% +0.48% USD/AUD 0.942 0.004 +0.46% +0.54% Most active contracts
Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel. Rice: USD per hundredweight RSI 14, exponential
(agencies)