CANBERRA- Chicago corn and soybean futures fell for a fourth straight session on Tuesday as massive US harvests continued to pour supplies on to the market and forecasts of rain in Brazil improved production prospects there.
Wheat futures also slipped after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) raised its outlook for global wheat stocks on Friday, but found some support from concerns over production and shipments from the Black Sea and elsewhere.
Pressuring all three was a sharp rise in the US dollar this month that has made US crops costlier for overseas buyers with other currencies.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.6 percent at $4.06 a bushel at 0518 GMT, with CBOT soybeans falling 1 percent to $9.86 a bushel and wheat slipping 1.1 percent to $5.78-3/4 a bushel.
Corn and soybeans have fallen roughly 7 percent from highs around the start of the month and are pushing towards four-year lows. Wheat has held up better and is little changed this month.
The USDA, in a monthly report on Friday, raised its estimate of US corn production and trimmed its forecast of US soybean output. The country is set for its second-biggest corn harvest and its biggest soybean crop.
Meanwhile, forecast rain in Brazil is set to break a dry period that hampered planting, with only 8.2 percent of the total expected soybean area sown by last Thursday compared to 17 percent at the same time last season, consultancy AgRural said.
The United States is the world’s largest corn exporter and the No. 2 soybean supplier. Brazil is the biggest soybean producer and a major shipper of corn.
The USDA report, ongoing US harvest and South American weather forecasts triggered a wave of short selling by speculators that pressured prices, StoneX analyst Bevan Everett said.
“The market’s really been focused on South America,” said Dennis Voznesenski, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank in Sydney. “Any change in the weather forecast to more favorable conditions is causing prices to move lower.”
In wheat, traders are concerned about Russia, the biggest shipper, where export prices rose last week in anticipation of lower supply.
The Black Sea region and major exporters Argentina and Australia have suffered from dry weather in recent months that depressed yields, though Argentina received some rain at the weekend.
The Russian government has also set a minimum price and a higher export duty to limit shipments, but traders say these measures don’t appear to be as restrictive as some had feared.
