Corn, Soybean Futures Under Pressure

Grain and soybean futures were mixed on Thursday, hitting selling pressure after a recent rally.

Prices rose sharply on Wednesday as a lower U.S. dollar and concerns about dry weather in South America prompted hedge funds to get out of some long-term bets that grain-and-oilseed contracts would fall. But the rally lost steam on Thursday, with a wetter turn in Argentine forecasts pressuring corn and soybean markets.

Analysts said that updated forecasts showed more rainfall in Argentina in the week after next, which would help relieve some of the crops affected by mounting heat and dryness stress. That alone would likely not be enough to stave off dwindling crop yield potential, they said.

"There is not enough rain in the Argy forecast to solve prior months of dryness," said AgResource Co. in a note to clients. "It's premature to turn bearish"

Corn and soybean futures both gave back overnight gains. March-dated corn contracts fell 0.4% to $3.55 1/4 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade, while March soybean futures closed unchanged at $9.92 1/4 a bushel.

Wheat futures rose, helped in part by weakness in the U.S. dollar. CBOT March contracts climbed 0.4% to $4.34 1/2 a bushel.

The U.S. dollar continued to carve out new multiyear lows through much of Thursday, before a late turn higher. A weaker greenback against currencies of rival exporters like Brazil and Russia could be a boon to U.S. exporters, analysts said, helping make their produce cheaper for global buyers.

"U.S. corn is already the cheapest in the world and the dollar has been dropping relative to nearly every other currency in the world, so we will have to see if all that translates to better U.S. export demand," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, a founding partner at Summit Commodity Brokerage, in a note.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2018 15:26 ET (20:26 GMT)