Corn held near the lowest price in four years as crop conditions in the US improved, boosting expectations that production this year will be the highest ever.
The contract for December delivery fell 0.1 per cent to $3.515 a bushel at 7:44 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, after falling to $3.5125, matching the lowest for a most-active contract since June 2010. Prices fell 17 per cent this year.
About 74 per cent of corn and 72 per cent of soybeans were rated in good to excellent condition as of 31 August, the best for the week since 1994, the US Department of Agriculture said 2 September. INTL FCStone Inc. and Allendale Inc. say corn output will top USDA’s estimate. Samples in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Iowa, representing 45 per cent of forecast output, showed bigger yields than last year, according to inspections on the 22nd annual Pro Farmer crop tour.
“Yield results seem to be surprising people on the upside,” Wayne Gordon, an analyst at UBS AG in Singapore, said by phone today. “People are looking at the balance sheet and are thinking they can now lock in these pretty big numbers that a lot of people have been talking about.”
Farmers may harvest 14.595 billion bushels, FCStone said Sept. 2. The crop may reach 14.409 billion bushels, Illinois- based Allendale said yesterday. The USDA forecasts a record 14.032 billion bushels.
Wheat for December delivery declined 0.6 per cent to $5.3275 a bushel. In Paris, milling wheat futures dropped 0.7 per cent, the fifth consecutive decline.
Soybeans for delivery in November fell 0.3 per cent to $10.17 a bushel.
Bloomberg News edited by ESM
