Corn, Soybeans Rise Ahead of USDA Report

Corn and soybean futures rose on Tuesday ahead of a fresh batch of government supply-and-demand data.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will release its first forecasts for the 2017-2018 crop year, in which it is expected to show continued large grain and oilseed stockpiles.

Most actively traded July soybean futures rose 9 1/4 cents, or 1%, to $9.74 a bushel in Tuesday's session at the Chicago Board of Trade. July corn futures rose 1/2 cent, or 0.1%, to $3.66 1/2 a bushel.

In a separate report, the USDA said on Monday that farmers had planted nearly half of this year's corn crop, at 47%, and 14% of soybeans. That was behind the pace of previous years, with rainfall continuing to hamper smooth fieldwork. Corn will have to be replanted in some regions of the Midwest due to flooding, analysts said.

But wheat prices were under pressure on Tuesday after the USDA left winter wheat crop condition little changed, lowering good-or-excellent quality wheat by one percentage point to 53%, despite heavy snowfall in growing regions of the U.S. Plains.

CBOT July wheat futures fell 4 cents, or 0.9%, to $4.29 1/4 a bushel.

A stronger dollar and falling crude oil prices, which have recently traded at multimonth lows, are limiting potential for rallies in the broader commodity sector, said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at INTL FCStone.

"The renewed interest in the dollar creates problems for commodity traders hoping they could put a bottom in that sector," Mr. Suderman said.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 09, 2017 15:36 ET (19:36 GMT)