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Futures consolidate after rally to multi-week highs
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Investors await Fed interest rate decision
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Poor conditions in Argentina, U.S. Plains underpin prices
(Updates with European trading, changes byline/dateline)
By Matthew Chye
PARIS/SINGAPORE, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean
inched up while corn and wheat futures ticked lower on
Wednesday, consolidating below multi-week peaks as participants
awaited a U.S. interest rate decision and fresh indications of
grain export demand.
Poor growing conditions for Argentine corn and soybeans, as
well as some U.S. winter wheat, were helping underpin the
markets, though the prospect of a record Brazilian soy harvest
and competition from Black Sea cereals were capping prices,
analysts said.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of
Trade (CBOT) was up 0.1% at $15.39-1/2 a bushel by 1150
GMT.
CBOT wheat was down 0..2% at $7.60 a bushel, while
corn eased 0.4% to $6.76-3/4 a bushel.
On Tuesday, the soybean and corn contracts had reached their
highest in almost two weeks while wheat touched a near four-week
peak.
Investors are hoping the U.S. Federal Reserve will signal
later on Wednesday an end to its cycle of interest rate hikes as
some data suggests easing inflation and wage growth. The Fed's policy announcement, along with U.S. jobs data and
other central bank meetings later this week, has added to
caution in financial markets as investors also make turn of the
month adjustments.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) attache in
Buenos Aires cut its 2022/23 soy crop forecast for Argentina to
36 million tonnes, 9.5 million the USDA's current official
estimate.
Traders are uncertain if rain forecast for Argentina next
week will be enough to avoid stressful conditions for crops,
commodities research firm Hightower said in a note.
Grain markets are watching to see if Chinese demand will
pick up after last week's Lunar New Year holiday.
Tenders called by Egypt for corn and wheat were also in
focus.
U.S. corn was offered the cheapest on a free-on-board (FOB)
basis in Egypt's corn tender being held on Wednesday, according
to traders. The wheat tender takes place on Thursday.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Matthew Chye in
Singapore; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
