BEIJING- Chicago corn and soy retreated on Tuesday as traders booked profits after an overnight rally, although a weaker US dollar and concerns over dryness in key grower Argentina kept a floor on prices.
Wheat also fell, partly weighed by a disappointing weekly export sales report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week and ahead of another report this Friday.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.6 percent at $4.54-6/8 a bushel, after hitting a six-month high in the previous session.
The soybean contract was down 0.7 percent at $9.91 a bushel, while wheat dropped 0.74 percent to $5.36 a bushel.
Soy and corn had jumped in the previous session as hot and dry weather in Argentina raised concerns over crop damages in the world’s top exporter of soybean oil and meal as well as the third-largest corn exporter.
There was also support from the dollar hovering near one-week lows as traders considered whether US President-elect Donald Trump’s tariffs would be less aggressive than promised.
On the other hand, Chicago soy complex gave up gains on profit-taking ahead of the USDA’s weekly report on wheat exports this Friday, a Singapore-based analyst said.
Its report last Friday showed export sales were 140,600 metric tons for the week ended Dec. 26, below estimates for 200,000 to 500,000 metric tons, per a Reuters poll.
Condition ratings for winter wheat declined last month in Kansas, the top US winter wheat producer, even as dry conditions subsided in parts of the state, the USDA said on Monday.
US soybean prices could slump below $9 a bushel, well below farmers’ cost of production and the lowest since 2020, if Trump’s threatened tariffs spark another trade war with China, according to Rabobank analysts.
Syria is unable to make deals to import fuel, wheat or other key goods due to US sanctions and despite many countries, including Gulf Arab states, wanting to do so, Syria’s new trade minister said.
Algerian state agency ONAB has issued an international tender to purchase up to 240,000 metric tons of animal-feed corn from Argentina or Brazil, European traders said on Monday.
Indian wheat prices jumped to a record high on Monday due to dwindling supplies amid robust demand from flour mills that are struggling to secure supply to operate at full capacity, industry officials told Reuters.
Indonesia plans to impose a quota on wheat imports for animal feed to protect local corn farmers, its senior minister for food affairs said on Monday.
