Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell for a second session on Friday, with the spot May contract dropping below US$16 a bushel for the first time in a month after the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast record soy acreage in that country.
Corn futures ended mixed. The front May contract on the Chicago Board of Trade sagged on technical selling and sympathy with soybeans, but deferred months including the December contract, representing the 2022 harvest, rose to life-of-contract highs on worries of a drop in U.S. corn plantings.
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Wheat futures fell in choppy, lacklustre trade at the start of the month and quarter, pressured by sluggish export demand for U.S. supplies.
CBOT May soybeans settled down 35-1/2 cents at $15.82-3/4 a bushel after hitting $15.80-3/4, the contract’s lowest since Feb. 25 (all figures US$).
Traders noted follow-through selling after USDA on Thursday projected U.S. farmers would plant 91 million acres of soybeans this spring, the most on record, while reducing corn acreage to 89.5 million acres, down four per cent from last year.
“The pronounced shift in acreage from corn to soybeans is probably due to the sharp rise in fertilizer prices,” Commerzbank said.
Soybeans require less fertilizer than corn, making the oilseed more attractive to farmers as high costs and tight fertilizer supplies have been exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine.
CBOT May corn ended down 13-3/4 cents at $7.35 per bushel, but new-crop December corn settled up 4-1/4 cents at $6.88 after setting a contract high at $6.93-3/4 as brokers worried about a looming supply shortfall.
“Suddenly, the markets are waking up to the reality that the world may be tight on corn this year, with Ukraine absent from the export market, and U.S. farmers reducing planting intentions more than expected,” Arlan Suderman, StoneX chief commodities economist, wrote in a note to clients.
CBOT May wheat ended down 21-1/2 cents at $9.84-1/2 per bushel, extending its decline late in the session. The most-active CBOT wheat contract has fallen 28 per cent since notching an all-time high of $13.63-1/2 on March 8 amid worries about global grain supplies due to the conflict in Ukraine.
— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton in Beijing.
