Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures and deferred corn futures fell Thursday as the strong U.S. dollar added to concerns about weak export demand, traders said.
The dollar rose for a fourth consecutive session to a new two-month high, making US commodities less attractive to importers.
Concerns about the threat of adverse drought in Midwestern growing areas limited corn losses ahead of a three-day U.S. holiday weekend. Traders said markets were consolidating ahead of the long weekend.
“The dry forecast should continue to provide a good bottom under the new harvest months and strength in the cash market should support the old July harvest contract,” said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, an analyst at Summit Commodity Brokerage in Iowa.
The most active July corn was up 1-1/2 cents at 11:30 AM CDT (1630 GMT) at $5.88-3/4 a bushel, while December corn fell 5-1/2 cents to $5.14-1/2 per bushel.
Most-active soybeans fell 16-1/2 cents to $13.08 a bushel. Wheat fell 5-3/4 cents to $6.00-1/2 a bushel on the CBOT.
According to Pfitzenmaier, weather concerns and crop issues are needed to support significant rallies in corn and soybeans.
“Cool and dry weather encourages planting of remaining corn and soybean crops,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a daily weather report. “However, the moisture deficiency of the topsoil is becoming more apparent.”
The USDA separately reported a weekly net export reduction of 75,200 tons for US old crop corn in the week ending May 18, while net sales of new crop corn were only 52,100 tons, nearly below expectations from analysts.
Weekly export sales of US old crop soybeans were 115,000 tons, just short of trade expectations, and new crop sales fell short of expectations at 1,100 tons. (Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago. Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore. Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Subhranshu Sahu, Rashmi Aich and Richard Chang.)
Tags: Weak export demand rising dollar weighing soybean corn futures
