Wheat Falls as Rain Improves Outlooks; Corn and Soybeans Steady

Wheat prices fell Monday as wet weather returned to U.S. growing regions, alleviating fears for now about the state of U.S. crops.

CBOT Wheat for July fell 1.2% to $4.50 a bushel, the fourth straight session of losses.

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"Weather is still the focus until Friday," said Michael McDougall, director, commodities agency at Societe Generale in New York.

Temperatures have moderated in spring wheat areas, from the 90s two weeks ago to the mid-60s. and the rest of the Midwest is expecting timely rains. Mr. McDougall said short-covering may be in store over the July Fourth weekend when high temperatures are expected to return.

More information about the condition of crops was expected to be released at 4 p.m. EDT. As of the week ended June 18, 49% of winter wheat was in good or excellent condition versus 61% during the same week last year, and conditions had eroded versus the week prior. For spring wheat, 41% was in good or excellent condition versus 76% at this time last year.

Expectations are for an improvement for corn and soybeans and for the spring wheat crop to slide another 1% to 2%, said Allendale Inc.

In other markets, CBOT corn end up 0.4% at $3.59 a bushel for July and soybeans were flat at $9.11 a bushel. Other than weather concerns, Citi Research said it should be a relatively quiet week as speculators and commercial traders await the June 30 stocks and acreage report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Write to Julie Wernau at julie.wernau@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 26, 2017 16:29 ET (20:29 GMT)