Crop futures ground lower on Tuesday. There was not a lot of “new news” to move the markets, leaving them vulnerable to their recent tendency toward weakness.
Soybean futures are chopping around near the highs made last week. There is still lots of time for a crop scare in South America, but the dry areas of Argentina have been getting some much-needed precipitation. January was down 7 cents at $14.29 3/4, and November 2023 lost 2 1/4 cents to $13.76 1/4.
Wheat was slightly lower, amid a lack of bullish news regarding the war in Urkaine and the stabilization of US winter wheat crop ratings over the past couple of weeks after the Southern Plains got some rain. The December Chicago future dropped 7 3/4 cents to $7.91 1/2, December Kansas City was down 8 3/4 on the day at $9.25 1/2, and December Minneapolis dipped 2 cents to $9.46.
Corn futures continued to ease back Tuesday. The market is testing the low made last week amid generally good growing conditions for Brazil’s corn crop. There is also nervousness about a potential US rail strike in early December that could disrupt grain movement. The December 2022 future eased 2 3/4 cents to $6.56 3/4, and new-crop December 2023 was down 2 cents at $6.05 1/4.
