By Michael Hirtzer
CHICAGO, March 24 (Reuters) – U.S. wheat tumbled as much as
2 percent on Tuesday as investors took profits after the
previous session’s five-week high and extended weather outlooks
showed the possibility of crop-friendly rains in the United
States and Russia.
Soybean futures also were lower at the Chicago Board of
Trade, pressured by record South American harvests and
disappointing manufacturing data out of top importer China.
Corn was higher, touching a roughly two-week peak, on the
possibility that analyst outlooks for reduced U.S. spring
plantings could foreshadow tighter supplies later this year.
Investors already were evening positions ahead of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s prospective plantings report, which
is due in a week and considered one of the most important crop
reports of the year.
After the close of trading on Monday, the USDA boosted
condition ratings for the winter wheat crop in Texas and
Oklahoma, and held ratings steady in top growing state Kansas.
“Wheat has run its course to the upside,” said Jefferies
Bache analyst Shawn McCambridge, adding that export demand for
U.S. wheat remained lackluster.
Most-active CBOT May wheat settled 10-1/2 cents lower
at $5.23-1/2 per bushel, while soybeans for May delivery
fell 1-3/4 cents to $9.81-3/4, retreating after two days of
gains.
CBOT May corn was up 3 cents at $3.93-1/4.
The U.S. Plains wheat-growing region was expected to remain
mostly dry for the next week, but the main North American
weather model GFS did show a chance for normal amounts of
precipitation in the 11-to-15-day outlook, the Commodity Weather
Group said.
The Mississippi River Delta still was wet, putting seedings
of corn far behind schedule in an area of the country that
typically is the first to plant. Further delays in the Delta
could result in some farmers’ switching corn to another crop
such as soybeans, McCambridge said.
U.S. farmers overall were likely to boost soy seedings amid
promises for marginally better returns than corn, analysts say.
Rains were seen expanding next week in the euro region,
Ukraine and Russia, and will “provide timely moisture for early
wheat growth,” Commodity Weather Group said in a note to
clients.
Ukraine’s wheat and corn harvests are likely to decrease
this year due to unfavorable weather during autumn sowing and a
smaller sown area, analysts at UkrAgroConsult said.
(Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen
Thukral in Singapore; Editing by David Evans, Lisa Von Ahn and
Alan Crosby)