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Wheat drops for fourth session on supply pressures; corn falls

Chicago wheat futures slid for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday to trade near last session’s 15-month low, as poor demand for U.S. shipments amid ample Black Sea supplies weighed on the market.

Corn eased, giving up last session’s gains, while soybeans ticked higher.

“Demand for U.S. wheat has been very poor and yet another bounce in the U.S. dollar did not help,” commodities research firm Hightower said in a report. “Talk that Egypt booked Russia wheat in their tender added to the negative tone.”

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) lost 0.4% to $7.27-3/4 a bushel, as of 0259 GMT, after dropping to its lowest since Oct. 2021 at $7.20-1/2 a bushel on Tuesday.

Corn fell 0.1% to $6.54-1/4 a bushel while soybeans gained 0.2% at $14.87-1/2 a bushel.

A lack of demand for U.S. wheat is weighing on Chicago futures.

Egypt’s state grains buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities, is believed to have booked at least 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat in an international tender on Tuesday, traders said.

India’s wheat production is set to hit a record after all-time high prices prompted farmers to expand planting areas, with high-yielding varieties and good weather conditions, scientists and traders told Reuters.

Higher wheat output could encourage India, the world’s second-biggest producer of the grain, to consider lifting a ban on exports of the staple and help ease concerns over persistently high inflation in food prices.

The USDA is expected to cut its corn and soy production outlook for drought-hit Argentina but also raise its estimate of U.S. grain and soybean supplies.

Hot, dry weather is expected across Argentina’s crop belt over the next 10 days, adding stress on an already drought-diminished crop, according to a Commodity Weather Group forecast.

However, the drought in Argentina is likely to break in coming months, though it could be March before rain and soil moisture levels fully return to normal, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange said on Tuesday.

Argentina is one of the world’s top food producers, but dry conditions over much of the past year have taken a toll on its key agricultural regions, delaying its soybean and corn crops, and halving wheat production this season.

Anec, a Brazilian trade group representing grain exporters, on Tuesday said the country has booked shipments of more than 1 million tonnes of corn to China in January, putting Brazil on course to export a record overall volume in the current month.

Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT wheat, soybean, soyoil and soymeal futures contracts on Tuesday and net buyers of corn futures, traders said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; editing by Uttaresh.V and Rashmi Aich)

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