Corn and soybean futures ended solidly lower on Wednesday, with wheat mainly weaker.
Soybeans rallied Monday on new Chinese purchases of US supplies but has now fallen the last two days. The USDA did announce another 330,000 tonnes of soybeans sold to China via its daily announcement system this morning, but there are ideas that Beijing will still fall short of its US soybean purchase target of 12 million tonnes by the end of this year. Further pressure today came from reports of farmer selling, after the market earlier this week hit a 17-month high. Profit taking also weighed. January beans dropped 17 ¼ cents to $11.36 ¼, and March fell 15 ¾ cents to $11.44 ½.
Corn was weaker with the losses in soybeans, despite strong export demand. Census data released this morning showed August US corn exports at 6.4 million tonnes (251.8 million bu). That was a record for the month at 25.42% above last year and a 2.76% increase from July. December corn lost 7 cents to $4.29 ¾, and March was down 8 cents at $4.41 ½.
Heavy global supplies continued to overhang wheat, with last week’s USDA report raising 2025-26 US and world wheat ending stocks from September. The Ukraine Ag Ministry estimates the country’s wheat crop at 23 million tonnes, up 400,000 from 2024, with exports expected to reach 17 million in 2025-26. December Chicago ended 9 ¾ cents lower at $5.36 ¾, and December Kansas City was down 10 ¾ cents at $5.15 ½. December Hard Red Spring managed a 6 ½-cent gain to $5.46 ¼, but December Minneapolis eased 1 ½ cents to $5.81 ¼.
