GRAINS — Wheat slips to two — month low, soybeans stay weak
(Updates with European trading, changes dateline) PARIS/BEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) — Chicago wheat futures fell to a two-month low on Friday as supply pressure from the US corn harvest and a recovery in Russian wheat exports weighed on prices, analysts said. Corn edged down to hold near a seven-week low from last Friday when an unexpected increase to the US Department of Agriculture's harvest forecast dampened sentiment. Soybean futures extended losses to a new seven-week low as an advancing US harvest, expected to bring a record volume, took attention away from renewed Chinese purchases. An easing in the dollar index, after an 18-month high struck on Wednesday, helped underpin Chicago prices. The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 1.5% at $6.60 a bushel by 1203 GMT, after earlier touching its lowest since August 12 at $6.59-1/4. CBOT corn was down 0.4% at $4.76. "We believe the recent corn sell-off has also spilled over into wheat," BMI, a Fitch Solutions research unit, said in a note. The wheat market has shown little reaction this week to further attacks on ships in the Black Sea, with traders focused on ample US corn supply as well as signs that Ru
(Updates with European trading, changes dateline) PARIS/BEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) — Chicago wheat futures fell to a two-month low on Friday as supply pressure from the US corn harvest and a recovery in Russian wheat exports weighed on prices, analysts said. Corn edged down to hold near a seven-week low from last Friday when an unexpected increase to the US Department of Agriculture's harvest forecast dampened sentiment. Soybean futures extended losses to a new seven-week low as an advancing US harvest, expected to bring a record volume, took attention away from renewed Chinese purchases.
An easing in the dollar index, after an 18-month high struck on Wednesday, helped underpin Chicago prices. The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 1.5% at $6.60 a bushel by 1203 GMT, after earlier touching its lowest since August 12 at $6.59-1/4. CBOT corn was down 0.4% at $4.76. "We believe the recent corn sell-off has also spilled over into wheat," BMI, a Fitch Solutions research unit, said in a note.
The wheat market has shown little reaction this week to further attacks on ships in the Black Sea, with traders focused on ample US corn supply as well as signs that Russia was expanding wheat shipments through the Baltic Sea. CBOT soybeans slipped 0.4% to $12.57-3/4 a bushel, after earlier hitting its lowest since August 27 at $12.57-1/4. A drier end to the week in the Midwest is expected to let farmers step up harvesting again after they made swift progress last week. The USDA has said that 46% of the soybean crop had been harvested by Sunday, surpassing average market expectations.
Fresh Chinese purchases have lent some support to Chicago soybean prices. Traders told Reuters that Chinese state buyers purchased about 18-23 cargoes, or roughly 1.2-1.5 million metric tons, of US soybeans this week. However, Chinese purchases remained well below a 25 million metric ton annual target announced by Washington as part of a trade truce.
Prices at 1203 GMT Last Change Pct Move CBOT wheat 660.00 -10.00 -1.49 CBOT corn 476.00 -2.00 -0.42 CBOT soy 1257.75 -5.25 -0.42 Paris wheat 243.25 -3.00 -1.22 Paris maize 294.00 -7.25 -2.41 Paris rapeseed 500.75 1.00 0.20 WTI crude oil 98.37 0.40 0.41 Euro/dollar 1.13 0.00 0.33 Most active contracts — Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel, Paris futures in euros per metric ton (Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Vijay Kishore) ((gus.trompiz@thomsonreuters.com)