CANBERRA: Chicago wheat, corn and soybean futures steadied on Monday after disappointing US export data pushed prices of all three contracts lower at the end of last week.
Paris wheat prices firmer
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The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.1% at $4.42-1/4 a bushel by 0131 GMT, with CBOT soybeans were up 0.1% at $9.89-1/2 a bushel and wheat traded 0.1% higher to $5.52-3/4 a bushel.
After multiple weeks of impressive volumes, US corn and soybean export sales last week were a disappointment.
Growing uncertainty over China’s import needs going into next year also weighed on grain and oilseed markets, with China’s statistics bureau saying on Friday that total grain production reached a record of more than 700 million tons in 2024.
CBOT corn rose last week to its highest level since June after the US Department of Agriculture cut its estimate for US end-of-season stocks. Higher corn prices helped lift wheat, since both grains are used as animal feed.
But profit-taking kicked in by the end of the week, with speculators selling CBOT corn, wheat and soy on Friday, traders said.
Despite the USDA cut to US ending stocks, analysts at JPMorgan said their global outlook balances for 2025/26 showed critical lows in world Ex-China wheat and corn inventories, limiting price downside.
However, they said in a research note, “US grain, soybean and cotton availability remains comfortable, likely containing the extent of price recovery in the absence of a major improvement in domestic or export demand.”
Ukraine’s grain harvest could total around 55 million metric tons in 2024, against the previous estimate of 54 million tons, Ukrainian agriculture minister Vitaliy Koval said on Friday.
Russia’s seaborne grain exports rose 39.5% year-on-year in November to 4.8 million metric tons, shipping data from industry sources showed.
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