Corn retreats after rally on lower-than-expected US stockpiles
CANBERRA, Oct 1 (Reuters) -Chicago corn futures retreated on Tuesday after reaching a three-month high in the previous session when a U.S. government estimate of corn stockpiles fell short of trade expectations, triggering a rush of short-covering.
Soybean and wheat futures also fell.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Cv1 was down 0.4% at $4.23 a bushel, as of 0059 GMT. The contract climbed to $4.28 on Monday, its highest levels since June 27.
* CBOT wheat Wv1 was down 0.6% at $5.80-3/4 a bushel and soybeans Sv1 slipped 0.5% to $10.51-1/4 a bushel.
* All three contracts hit four-year lows in recent months due to a plentiful supply outlook but have since recovered some ground.
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Monday that U.S. farmers and merchants held 1.76 billion bushels of corn, as of Sept. 1, up 29% year-on-year and the most since 2020 but below analysts' expectations of 1.844 billion bushels.
* The data showed that demand for corn in feed and ethanol was strong but did little to change market fundamentals, StoneX analyst Bevan Everett wrote in a note, saying the price rise was driven by speculators.
* "The strength in the corn market could be attributed to bookkeeping as opposed to trade responding to fundamentals," he wrote. "It's estimated that the funds bought 21,000 to 30,000 contracts of their short position."
* The USDA later said the U.S. corn harvest was 21% complete, 2 percentage points below the average expectation of 10 analysts polled by Reuters.
* Although stocks fell short of expectations, this year's corn harvest is set to be the second biggest in history, according to USDA.
* That said, analysts at JPMorgan were bullish on corn, pointing to lower production in Ukraine and Russia following dry weather and a reduction in corn planting in Argentina after a leafhopper insect infestation.
* They also flagged low rainfall in parts of the Americas. "The expansion of dry conditions and a dry seasonal forecast, underpinned by the evolution of La Nina in the coming months keep us cautious on yield potential. We continue to look for lower revisions to the USDA's U.S. yield projections over the months ahead," they wrote.
* U.S. Sept. 1 soybean stocks also rose and were the largest since 2020, the USDA said, adding that the harvest was 26% complete.
* The stocks were smaller than analysts had expected, but harvest progress was 2 percentage points above expectations.
* U.S. wheat stockpiles swelled to a four-year high but traders are concerned that dry weather in the Black Sea region is worsening the supply outlook.
* Wheat export prices in Russia, the world's biggest shipper of the grain, rose last week, though the pace of shipments also picked up.
MARKETS NEWS
* MSCI's global equities index fell on Monday and the dollar rose as the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell dampened hopes for another big rate cut, while oil futures ended flat after a choppy session on concerns about an escalating conflict in the Middle East. MKTS/GLOB
Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips
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