Chicago soybean futures were largely unchanged on Tuesday, with the market trading close to its lowest level in nearly 10 months on expectations that a U.S. report will likely show ample supplies of the oilseed.
Wheat and corn prices edged lower.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade (CBOT) was unmoved at $12.28-1/4 a bushel by 0246 GMT, near the session low of $12.24-/4 a bushel – the weakest level since December.
Wheat gave up 0.1% at $7.30-3/4 a bushel and corn lost 0.2% to $5.32 a bushel.
Investors in the agricultural markets are awaiting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) production forecast later on Tuesday.
“Heavy soybean stocks from the USDA shocked the market less than two weeks ago, and the oilseed could once again catch traders off guard on Tuesday given the narrow range of pre-report yield guesses for the U.S. harvest,” Karen Braun, a market analyst for Reuters, wrote in a column.
“Analysts have left a little more wiggle room on corn yield, though corn and soybean ending stocks are expected to increase versus last year and last month’s estimates, and futures could come under pressure if supplies are unexpectedly large.”
The U.S. corn harvest was 29% complete as of Sunday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a weekly crop progress report on Monday, ahead of the five-year average of 22% and matching the average estimate in a Reuters analyst poll.
The U.S. soybean crop was 34% harvested, the USDA said, ahead of the five-year average of 26% and the average analyst estimate of 32%.
Sovecon, a leading Black Sea agricultural markets research firm, on Monday cut its 2021 estimates for Ukraine’s corn crop and Russia’s wheat crop.
The company lowered its estimate for Russia’s crop total by 0.1 million tonnes to 75.5 million tonnes and cut its Ukraine corn crop forecast by 1.2 million tonnes to 38.4 million tonnes.
Planting of Brazil’s 2021/22 soybean crop reached 10% of the estimated area as of Oct. 7, up six percentage points from the previous week and compared to 3% in the same period of 2020/21, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT beans, wheat, soymeal and soyoil, and net buyers of corn futures contracts on Monday, traders said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)