Corn eases on supply hopes, soybeans rise ahead of US reports
SINGAPORE: Chicago corn slid on Monday with the market trading close to last week's eight-month low, and wheat lost ground with both products facing pressure from expectations of ample global supplies.
Soybeans edged higher in positioning ahead of the US Department of Agriculture acreage, stock and crop progress reports later in the day.
'The supply picture is pretty bearish for grains, and we don't see much upside in prices,' said one trader in Singapore.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) fell 0.2% to $4.10-3/4 a bushel, as of 0337 GMT.
Wheat lost 0.3% to $5.39-1/4 a bushel. Soybeans, which hit a three-month low on Friday, added 0.2% to $10.26-3/4 a bushel.
Favourable supply prospects in the United States and key exporting countries are likely to pressure prices.
Warm weather and rains have created the ideal growing conditions for soybeans and corn in the US Midwest, while farmers in Brazil are expected to harvest a bumper second corn crop, following a record soybean harvest earlier this year.
Taiwan's MFIG buys about 65,000 T corn from Brazil, traders say
The International Grains Council raised its 2025-26 world wheat crop outlook by 2 million tons to 808 million on Thursday, while the European Commission increased its forecast for the European Union's soft wheat crop by 1.6 million tons to 128.2 million tons.
Canadian farmers planted more acres of wheat, oats, soybeans, lentils, dry peas and corn and fewer acres of canola and barley compared with 2024 levels, according to a Statistics Canada survey released 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.
Participants in agricultural markets are also adjusting their positions.
Large speculators increased their net short position in CBOT corn futures in the week to June 24, regulatory data showed on Friday.
Non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and switched to a net short position in soybeans, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report showed.
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