In Commodity News 22/02/2016
U.S. grain and soybeans were roughly flat on Friday, stabilizing amid a lack of fresh fundamental news following steep gains earlier this week tied mostly to investor short-covering, traders and analysts said.
Corn and soybean futures each were slightly lower at the Chicago Board of Trade after prices failed to knock out the multiweek peaks notched earlier this week. Wheat was mostly higher in a rebound from sharp losses on Thursday.
Each market was on pace for a weekly gain, with ample global grain and oilseed supplies still limiting potential upside in prices ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s outlook forum next week.
USDA economists will predict U.S. spring sowings next week, ahead of forecasts based on thousands of farmer surveys due in March.
The dollar lost ground against of basket of currencies, underpinning U.S. grain prices that have struggled to compete in recent years with cheaper supplies on offer in South America and the Black Sea.
“Farmers aren’t too interested in selling, not here or in South America. On the other hand, no one seems to be buying anything,” said Jack Scoville, analyst at The Price Futures Group in Chicago.
“The dollar’s down a little bit, and we appear to be getting more competitive (in export markets). All that’s kind of helping us out a little bit, in stabilizing prices,” he added.
USDA earlier released weekly grain export sales results, with corn sales of more than 1 million tonnes above analyst expectations and wheat and soy sales in line with estimates.
CBOT March corn was down 1/4 cent at $3.65-1/4 per bushel and CBOT March wheat up 1-3/4 cents at $4.64 per bushel as of 12:52 p.m. CST (1852 GMT). Both were on pace to rise more than 1 percent this week.
Soybeans for March delivery were down 1/4 cent at $8.79-1/2 per bushel, on track to gain about 0.7 percent for the week.
“We’re still in a market that is psychologically focused on the current season,” Sebastien Poncelet of consultancy Agritel said. “Crop risks for the next harvest, like in India or Ukraine, are not really making headlines right now.”
Mostly good weather in South America, including beneficial rainfall in Argentina, has bolstered prospects for big corn and soybean crops, analysts say.
Source: Reuters (Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by David Evans and Chizu Nomiyama)
