IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

GRAINS-US wheat hits contract low on poor demand, corn falls for 3rd day

Reuters

* Chicago Dec wheat hits fresh contract low on weak demand
* Corn falls for 3rd day as U.S. harvest pressure mounts

SINGAPORE, Sept 3 Chicago wheat hit a contract low on Thursday, falling for a sixth session out of eight, as ample global supplies dented demand for uncompetitively priced U.S. grain.

Corn fell for a third session with a near-record U.S. harvest likely to add pressure on the market in the weeks ahead.

Chicago Board of Trade December wheat fell to as much as $4.75-3/4 a bushel, breaching the previous contract low of $4.76-1/2 a bushel touched on Monday and Wednesday. By 0258 GMT, wheat was trading down 0.6 percent at $4.76-1/4. Prices closed down 1.5 percent on Wednesday.

Soybeans slid 0.2 percent to $8.72-1/4 a bushel, having closed little changed in the previous session, and corn fell 0.3 percent to $3.66-1/4 a bushel, having closed down around half a percent on Wednesday.

Wheat is under pressure amid abundant supplies and dim U.S. export prospects.

Egypt's GASC, the top buyer of wheat, tendered to buy an unspecified amount of wheat after the closing bell. U.S. wheat was not even offered in the tenders issued by Egypt last week.

"Grain markets are moving lower with wheat prices down on ample world supply, while corn and soy face the prospect of the imminent start to the U.S. harvest," said Paul Deane, senior agricultural economist at ANZ Bank.

"Markets are awaiting the publication of new crop estimates from the USDA at the end of next week."

Russia's export prices for wheat fell further last week due to the rouble weakening and a decline in global benchmarks, analysts said.

Black Sea forward prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein content stood at $180 per tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis at the end of last week, down $3 from a week earlier, agriculture consultancy IKAR said.

A firm dollar, which makes U.S. commodities relatively more expensive to overseas buyers, has cast a bearish tone across the sector.

The dollar climbed against the euro and yen on Thursday as global investors tentatively stepped back into riskier equities, tempering the recent rush to unwind carry trades that had boosted the single currency and the Japanese unit.

Commodity funds sold an estimated net 6,000 CBOT wheat contracts on Wednesday, trade sources said. The funds also sold a net 6,000 corn contracts, sold 5,000 in soyoil, bought 2,000 in soymeal and were net even in soybeans.

Grains prices at 0258 GMT

Contract        Last    Change  Pct chg  Two-day chg MA 30   RSI 
 CBOT wheat     476.25    -2.75  -0.57%    -1.80%     502.98   27
 CBOT corn      366.25    -1.25  -0.34%    -2.40%     380.67   28
 CBOT soy       872.25    -1.75  -0.20%    -1.72%     921.35   35
 CBOT rice      $11.94   -$0.02  -0.13%    -1.81%     $11.81   56
 WTI crude      $45.87   -$0.38  -0.82%    +1.01%     $44.20   58

Currencies

Euro/dlr       $1.121  -$0.010  -0.92%    +0.02%
 USD/AUD         0.702    0.000  +0.04%    -1.31%

Most active contracts

Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel. Rice: USD per hundredweight RSI 14, exponential

04.09.15

All viewing: 138
Discuss