Corn, Soybean Futures Recover From Selloff

Corn and soybean futures rose Wednesday, changing course after losses earlier this week.

Improving weather forecasts had put pressure on prices this week. But ongoing concerns that some of the problems that hampered steady crop growth in July could continue this month encouraged bargain hunting in Wednesday's session.

In particular, unexpectedly low corn-yield estimates from INTL FCStone of 162.8 bushels an acre released Tuesday afternoon had traders reassessing the damage done by weather so far to the corn crop. That was at the low end of the range of expectations, though most analysts expect yields to suffer as a result of excessively dry weather.

Plenty of rain and cool temperatures through the Midwest could help the corn crop in August, even if its most important development phase has passed. The forecast should aid U.S. soybeans though, which improved in condition last week as the weather changed.

Corn futures for September delivery rose 0.7% to $3.65 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade, closing below highs for the day, while August-dated soybean contracts climbed 0.7% to $9.66 1/2 a bushel.

Rainfall this week in North Dakota is unlikely to help the spring wheat and corn crops there much, though, according to AgResource. The drought conditions that have decimated chunks of spring wheat there are likely to return.

September spring wheat futures at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange rose 0.6% to $7.22 1/4 a bushel, while CBOT September soft red winter wheat was largely steady, closing 0.1% lower at $4.60 3/4 a bushel.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 02, 2017 15:38 ET (19:38 GMT)