Corn Futures Drop on Continued Harvest Pressure — Daily Grain Highlights

By Kirk Maltais

--Corn for December delivery fell 1.1%, to $4.01 3/4 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday, with corn harvested this month hitting the market and increasing available domestic supply.

--Soybeans for November delivery were virtually unchanged, at $10.14 1/4 a bushel.

--Wheat for December delivery rose 0.7%, to $5.69 3/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Early Going: Grain traders pared risk ahead of the weekend, in reaction to early harvesting for both corn and soybeans, moreso for corn, with farmers' yields seen as robust in the early goings of the season. "There are some really good corn yields out there to offset some disappointing ones, while I'm hearing more disappointing soybean yields thus far than I am great ones," said Arlan Suderman of StoneX in a note.

Quenching Thirst: Brazilian weather is turning wetter in some growing areas, with Southern Brazilian states receiving fresh rainfall, said DTN in a note, although this system is not expected to have a great impact on drought-stricken areas. "Central Brazil continues to be extremely dry, in some of the worst drought to start off a season in decades," said the firm. "Wet season rainfall may be on track to start on time at the end of next week with spotty showers in Mato Grosso, but producers are going to have to wait for consistent rains to begin planting."

Multiple Examples: Multiple points of duress for the world wheat supply situation provided CBOT wheat futures with support. The International Grains Council lowered its world wheat production outlook by 1 million metric tons to 798 million tons. Wheat fields in Argentina and Australia are both experiencing weather issues crimping their expected output. Earlier this week, agricultural firms reported that crops in France and Germany were also under pressure, with French exports of wheat expected to be down 61% from the previous year.

INSIGHT

Crowding the Bin: U.S. farmers that have started their harvest are finding their new crop competing with unsold old crop for bin space, creating pricing pressure for row crops among farmers. "Burdensome old crop stocks are competing with space in the commercial elevator space," said Tommy Grisafi of Advance Trading. Farmers have been reluctant to sell their crops harvested last year, in hopes of prices turning around.

On the Grind: After a brief pause in new sales to China, the USDA announces that 121,000 metric tons of soybeans for delivery in the 2024/25 marketing year were sold to the country. This, along with strong soybean sales in the weekly export sales report, may bolster views on better export demand among traders, although that uptick was not seen in soybean futures today.

AHEAD

--The USDA will release its weekly grains export inspections report at 11 a.m. ET Monday.

--The USDA will release its weekly Crop Progress report at 4 p.m. ET Monday.

--The EIA will release its weekly ethanol production and stocks report at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 20, 2024 15:22 ET (19:22 GMT)

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