Grain, Soybean Futures Find Footing After Brazil Rout

Grain and soybean futures bounced on Friday, recovering some of the ground lost in selloffs earlier this week.

Brazilian politics continued to concern traders as they assessed the implications of a scandal there for the real, which dropped sharply in the aftermath, and by extension Brazil's agricultural exports.

"Traders assumed Brazilian grain exports would become more competitive at a time when their record soybean harvest is completed and their export-oriented second-crop corn heads to maturity," said Dave Marshall, a farm-marketing adviser at First Choice Commodities.

Analysts said the selling by Brazilian farmers so far has been limited, and the real steadied on Friday. That, too, helped soybean futures, which bore the brunt of the trader sell-off on Thursday.

Oilseed futures for July delivery rose 0.9% to $9.53 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade, but recovered less than a third of the previous session's losses. Analysts said the implications of the change in the value of the real could continue well beyond this year's crop.

Corn and wheat futures jumped as traders turned their attention back to domestic weather issues. Fresh bouts of rain, which have so far interrupted planting, flooded fields and stoked concerns about crop damage, were expected to return in the days to come.

"The active rains will stall remaining corn and soybean planting, and will also increase wetness concerns and disease threats for hard and soft winter wheat," said MDA Weather Services in a note, adding that another bout of rain is expected to in 11 to 15 days.

CBOT July wheat futures rose 2.2% to $4.35 1/4 a bushel. Corn rose 1.8% to $3.72 1/2.

Write to Benjamin Parkin at benjamin.parkin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 19, 2017 16:14 ET (20:14 GMT)