By Christopher Walljasper
CHICAGO, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Chicago soybeans, corn and wheat eased on Friday as the markets consolidated after earlier gains, pressured by a progressing American harvest and limited exports at hurricane-damaged U.S. Gulf export terminals.
The most-active soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade Sv1 fell 11-1/2 cents to $12.84-1/2 a bushel, as of 11:40 a.m. (1640 GMT), erasing earlier weekly gains.
CBOT corn futures Cv1 lost 3-1/2 cents to $5.26 a bushel while wheat futures Wv1 eased 4 cents to $7.09 a bushel, poised for a 3% weekly gain.
Soybeans led the complex, falling as favorable weather indicates strong harvest progress through the weekend, while exports remain capped by terminals in the U.S. Gulf that continue to struggle with power outages and hurricane damage as the country heads into its busiest export season.
“The export picture is not favorable right now, until we get those exports at the gulf moving up,” said Mike Zuzolo, president of Global Commodity Analytics. “It’s a very crucial two weeks, because it’s our prime selling.”
Wheat offered support, unaffected by harvest pressure, though Australia’s second consecutive bumper crop nears harvest, which could ease tight global supplies.
Attention shifted to supply risks this week after a lower-than-expected official estimate of Canada’s drought-affected harvest, as well as reduced estimates of French and European Union crops and expectations for a fall in winter wheat sowings in Russia.
“We’ve already seen considerable strength,” said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at StoneX. “Wheat is taking the opportunity to do a little profit-taking of its own.”
Corn losses were limited as harvest yields in parts of the Eastern corn belt have lagged expectation, Suderman added.
“That was the region we were counting on to make up for losses in the Northwestern belt, where drought was a problem this summer,” he said. “Yields have been coming in a little below expectations.”
(Reporting by Christopher Walljasper; Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Colin Packham Canberra; Editing by Pravin Char)
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