CANBERRA- Chicago soybean futures fell on Thursday to their lowest levels since December 2020 as speculators responded to plentiful supply and a strong US dollar by betting on a further price drop.
Ample supply also pushed wheat futures lower, while corn hovered near a three-year low reached in the previous session.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.3 percent at $11.67-1/4 a bushel.
CBOT corn dropped 0.4 percent to $4.22-3/4 a bushel after matching Wednesday’s low of $4.22, its weakest price since December 2020.
Wheat slipped 0.5 percent to $5.82-3/4 a bushel and was hovering close to last September’s three-year low of $5.40.
Soybeans and corn have lost around 10 percent so far this year and wheat has fallen around 7 percent .
US grains and soybeans face stiff competition for export business from other suppliers with plentiful cheap stocks, and the greenback hit a three-month high this week, making US farm products costlier for importers.
“A strong dollar makes it more difficult for these commodities to compete on the global market in a time when global supplies are more than adequate,” said StoneX analyst Arlan Suderman.
“Many of these markets are over-sold, with managed money holding massive short positions. But thus far, there isn’t a headline to create concern among these money managers to cause them to change their positions,” he said.
Plentiful rains in recent days across Argentina’s main growing regions cemented expectations for large corn and soybean harvests there.
Consultants Sovecon raised their 2024 Russian wheat crop estimate by 1.4 million metric tons to 93.6 million tons, which would be a third consecutive bumper harvest in Russia.
