3 days ago
Corn eases on supply hopes, soybeans rise ahead of US reports
Chicago corn fell on Monday, trading close to last week's eight-month low, and wheat was also down with both pressured by expectations of ample global supplies.
Soybeans edged higher in positioning ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture acreage, stock and crop progress reports due later on Monday.
"The supply picture is pretty bearish for grains, and we don't see much upside in prices," said one trader in Singapore.
Chicago Board of Trade most-active corn fell 0.6% to $4.09 a bushel at 1006 GMT, close to Thursday's eight-month low of $4.02-1/4.
Wheat fell 0.4% to $5.38-1/4 a bushel. Soybeans , which hit their lowest in around three months on Friday, rose 0.3% to $10.28-1/4 a bushel.
Favourable supply prospects in the United States and key exporting countries are undermining prices ahead of the USDA reports.
"Markets are likely to be volatile today with the USDA giving a big volume of important data to digest including U.S. inventories and estimates of U.S. sowings of corn, soybeans and wheat," one German trader said.
Warm weather and favourable rains have created ideal growing conditions for soybeans and corn in the U.S. Midwest, while farmers in Brazil are expected to harvest a bumper second corn crop.
The International Grains Council raised its 2025-26 world wheat crop forecast by 2 million metric tons to 808 million on Thursday.
The European Commission increased its forecast for the EU's soft wheat crop. Germany's farming association on Monday also forecast a larger grains crop for the country despite a spring drought.
Canadian farmers this year planted more crops including wheat, soybeans and corn, Statistics Canada said on Friday.
India's annual monsoon rains covered the entire country on Sunday, nine days earlier than is typical, the weather department said, bringing forward planting of summer-sown crops.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Harikrishnan Nair and Joe Bavier)
