By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO, May 25 (Reuters) – Chicago Board of Trade soybean and grain futures eased on Thursday as the strength of the U.S. dollar added to concerns about lackluster export demand, traders said.
THE pink dollar for a fourth straight session at a two-month high, making US commodities less attractive to importers.
Favorable weather conditions for planting U.S. corn and soybeans also weighed on agricultural markets, although the risk of drought is building, traders said. Supplies of the two cultures are expected to rise sharply next year due to forecast record harvests.
“The harvest is off to a good start,” Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage in Iowa, said of the corn.
December Corn CBOT CZ3which represents the crop that is planted this spring to be harvested in the fall, fell 4 cents to $5.16 a bushel.
Corn futures close in July CN3the most active contract CV1, finished 3-1/2 cents higher at $5.90-3/4 a bushel. Strength in the spot market helped support the old crop contract.
Soybean futures Sv1 ended down 1/2 cent at $13.24 a bushel, off the session low of $13.05. Wheat Wv1 also weakened, with the most active contract sliding 2 cents to close at $6.04-1/4 a bushel.
“The cool, dry weather is favoring the planting of any remaining corn and soybean acreage,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a daily report. “However, topsoil moisture shortages are becoming more apparent.”
The USDA separately reported the weekly net export sales reductions of 75,200 tonnes for US old crop corn in the week ending May 18. New crop corn net sales totaled just 52,100 tonnes, near the bottom of analysts’ range. expectations.
Weekly export sales of US old crop soybeans were 115,000 tonnes, below trade expectations, and new crop sales were below expectations at 1,100 tonnes.
For US wheat, the USDA reported net reductions of 45,100 tonnes for old crop export sales. New crop wheat net sales totaled 245,100 tonnes, below expectations.
(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, Richard Chang and David Gregorio)
((Thomas.Polansek@thomsonreuters.com))
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