Trading ranges in each of the commodities were narrow in advance of the USDA crop data that also was likely to show smaller US winter wheat plantings and a decline in US corn ending stocks. CBOT March soyabeans were down 4 cents to $9.51 per bushel as of 12:22 pm CST (1822 GMT), just above their earlier multimonth low of $9.50.
Agroconsult on Thursday said Brazil should harvest 114.1 million tonnes of soyabeans in the 2017/18 crop season, which would match an all-time record set in 2016/17. The consultancy in November forecast a 111 million tonne harvest. The big Brazilian crop was likely to dominate global export trade markets in the months to come, stealing away market share from US soya exporters.
Weekly US soyabean export sales of 607,400 tonnes and corn sales of 437,800 tonnes were both within analyst estimates. But US wheat exports dropped to 71,500 tonnes, a marketing-season low and below estimates for 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes.
CBOT March wheat eased to a session low of $4.28-1/4 per bushel in the wake of the export data before paring losses to $4.33-1/2, down 3/4 cent. CBOT March corn was down 1/4 cent to $3.48-1/4.