By Mark Weinraub
CHICAGO, Sept 9 (Reuters) – U.S. corn futures edged higher on Thursday, staging a modest recovery on bargain buying after sinking to their lowest in 7-1/2 months early in the trading session.
Wheat futures sank 1.9% to their lowest in more than a month on follow-through technical selling after a Canadian report on Wednesday that showed bigger-than-expected supplies triggered a bearish reaction in the market.
“We broke short-term key support on wheat and we just accelerated down,” said Mark Schultz, chief market analyst at Northstar Commodity.
Soybean futures also were weaker, bottoming out at their lowest since June 25, as traders staked out positions ahead of a U.S. government report that was expected to raise the outlook for this fall’s harvest.
Analysts also were expecting the U.S. Agriculture Department to increase its corn production forecast in its monthly supply and demand report on Friday.
At 11:20 a.m. CDT (1620 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade December corn futures CZ1 were up 1 cent at $5.11-1/4 a bushel. On a continuous basis, the most-active contract Cv1 hit its lowest since Jan. 25 on Thursday morning.
CBOT November soybeans SX1 were down 8-1/2 cents at $12.71 a bushel and CBOT December wheat WZ1 was 13-3/4 cents lower at $6.95-3/4 a bushel.
Chicago futures also remained pressured by concerns over exports after storm disruption to U.S. Gulf grain terminals and strength in the dollar this week. FRX
Disruption to exports after Hurricane Ida damaged export terminals around the U.S. Gulf Coast were also hanging over the market, though analysts expect logistics to improve in time for peak U.S. corn and soybean loadings later in the year.
Asia’s grain and oilseed buyers are set to face shipping delays of at least one month.
(Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore Editing by David Goodman and David Evans)
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