SINGAPORE- Chicago corn gained ground on Monday, with prices underpinned by short-covering after the market dropped to its lowest level in more than three years last week, weighed down by ample world supplies and expectations of a bumper harvest in South America.
Soybeans rose for the first time in four sessions, while wheat recouped some of the last session’s losses.
“Framers are holding large stocks of corn and they will be selling in the market,” said one Singapore-based grains trader. “Prices are likely to come under further pressure.”
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 0.3 percent to $4.14-3/4 a bushel, having dropped to its lowest since November 2020 last week.
Soybeans added 0.3 percent to $11.45 a bushel and wheat gained 0.5 percent at $5.71-3/4 a bushel.
Larger inventories of corn, mainly used to feed animals and as a biofuel, are providing headwinds to prices, which have dropped almost 12 percent so far in 2024.
US farmers held a whopping 7.83 billion bushels of corn in storage bins on their farms as of Dec. 1, the most ever for that date and up 16 percent from a nine-year low in December 2022, according to US government data. – Reuters