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Futures down after recent rally to multi-week highs
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Dry weather in Argentina raises supply concerns
(Adds quote in paragraph 4, updates prices)
By Matthew Chye
SINGAPORE, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures
inched lower on Wednesday on technical selling, even as dry
weather in top producer Argentina stoked supply worries and
hopes grew that demand would pick up in top buyer China after
the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of
Trade (CBOT) dipped 0.1% to $15.37-1/4 a bushel, as of
0506 GMT.
Wheat was slightly down at $7.61 a bushel, while corn lost 0.4% to $6.76-3/4 a bushel.
The demand outlook has improved for soybeans, with China
reopening after the Lunar New Year holiday, commodities research
firm Hightower said in a note.
Corn prices are weighed down by bearish technical action
after a rally to their highest since Jan. 18, and traders are
uncertain if forecasted rain for Argentina next week will be
enough to avoid stressful conditions for the crops, the report
added.
Earlier this week, soybeans and corn hit their highest in
nearly two weeks, while wheat touched a near four-week peak.
Soybean sales from Argentina's 2021/2022 harvest covered
80.8% of the 44 million tonne harvest as of last week, slightly
below the 83% sold from the previous season at the same time,
agricultural ministry data showed on Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) attache in
Buenos Aires cut Argentina's 2022/23 soy crop forecast to 36
million metric tons (MMT), 9.5 MMT below a prior USDA estimate,
as dry weather and high temperatures in the last months of 2022
hit the country's soybean crop.
Argentina will launch measures to help producers hit by a
historic drought over its main agricultural region, Economy
Minister Sergio Massa said on Tuesday, including a relief fund
to tackle considerable losses to the country's grains harvests.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT soybean, wheat and
soyoil futures contracts on Tuesday, and net sellers of corn and
soymeal futures contracts, traders said. Investors are keenly awaiting the U.S. Federal Reserve Open
Market Committee's (FOMC) decision on interest rates due at 1900
GMT, which is broadly expected to be a 25 basis-point hike.
(Reporting by Matthew Chye; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
