"The beans are down on continuing harvest pressure out of Brazil. We know about the (drought-related) losses in Argentina and southern Brazil, and that's been factored in," said Jack Scoville, market analyst at The Price Futures Group. "It's a little surprising that the beans have been as strong as they have, given the fact that we are going to have a lot of beans from Brazil coming pretty quick," Scoville added. The Brazilian soy harvest was 17% complete by Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, while Scoville noted that progress was more advanced in Mato Grosso, Brazil's biggest soybean state. Brazilian consultancy Agroconsult lowered its estimate of the country's soybean harvest to 153 million tonnes, down from 153.4 million tonnes previously, but still the largest on record if realized. Macroeconomic concerns hung over the grains as well as other markets. Wall Street equities slid after data showed U.S. consumer prices accelerated in January, while hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve officials cemented fears that the central bank will continue raising interest rates this year. CBOT March corn was down 3-1/4 cents at $6.81-3/4 a bushel and March wheat was down 7-1/2 cents at $7.84-1/2 a bushel. Traders continued to monitor war risks to Black Sea grain supplies.
In the latest Russian criticism of a wartime agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, Moscow said on Monday it would be "inappropriate" to extend the deal unless sanctions affecting its agricultural exports were lifted. News that military officials in Ukraine issued a warning on Tuesday of a high risk of naval mines drifting around the port of Odesa kept attention on potential disruption to grain trade as fighting in Ukraine intensifies. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Will Dunham)
