CHICAGO — U.S. grain and soybean futures declined on Tuesday amid pressure from a fall in financial markets and concerns over rising inflation.
Stocks extended losses, after a bruising selloff a day earlier pushed the S&P 500 to confirm a bear market, as investors braced for an aggressive interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this week.
Wheat futures felt additional pressure from seasonal selling at harvest time, along with the strong U.S. dollar creating headwinds for U.S. farm exports, analysts said.
Price breaks are being bought in wheat, though, and the market will trade sideways until global production becomes clearer, said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for StoneX.
“We’re chopping sideways until we more know,” Suderman said.
The most-active wheat contract at the Chicago Board of Trade was down 15-3/4 cents at $10.55-1/4 a bushel by 12:15 p.m. CDT (1715 GMT). Corn was down 2-3/4 cents at $7.66-1/2 a bushel, while soybeans slipped 2-3/4 cents to $17.04-3/4 a bushel.
Traders continue to monitor disruptions to Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain and talks aimed at boosting shipments. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will create a global wheat shortage for at least three seasons by keeping much of the Ukrainian crop from markets, pushing prices to record levels, Ukraine’s agriculture minister told Reuters.
Traders are also watching conditions of the U.S. corn and soybean crops. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday rated 72% of the U.S. corn crop in good to excellent condition, down 1 percentage point from a week earlier and below the average of estimates in a Reuters poll.
The USDA rated 70% of the soybean crop as good to excellent in its first 2022 condition ratings for the oilseed, in line with trade expectations.
A heat wave in the Corn Belt is promoting a rapid pace of development for crop, the USDA said separately in a daily weather report. (Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago. Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Shailesh Kuber, Aditya Soni and Tomasz Janowski)
