GRAINS-Wheat inches higher but heads for weekly loss on ample supply
CANBERRA, July 25 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures inched higher on Friday but were set to end the week down 0.8% as strong U.S. exports were offset by plentiful global supply provided by ongoing northern hemisphere harvests.
Corn futures rose slightly after U.S. export sales triggered a round of short-covering, but prices were nevertheless headed for a 1.5% weekly fall amid expectations of a large U.S. harvest.
Soybeans gained but were down 0.9% for the week as U.S. weekly export sales came in at the lower end of trade estimates.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wv1 was up 0.1% at $5.42 a bushel at 0134 GMT, while CBOT corn Cv1 climbed 0.1% to $4.21-1/4 a bushel and soybeans Sv1 rose 0.3% $10.27 a bushel.
* Net U.S. wheat export sales for the week ended July 17 came in at 712,000 metric tons, on the high end of a range of trade estimates.
* U.S. wheat is now cheaper than wheat from Europe or top exporter Russia, where a large harvest is beginning to flow into the market. CBOT wheat slipped to a five-year low of $5.06-1/4 in May.
* Scouts on an annual North Dakota crop tour projected hard red spring wheat yields in the top-producing state will average 49.0 bushels per acre, down from a record 54.5 bpa last year and below the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast.
* One of the few major wheat producers with weather threats to production is Canada, where the USDA attache said drought was a central challenge and predicted a 35.2-million-ton harvest.
* The USDA on Thursday reported sales of 135,000 tons of corn to South Korea and 284,196 tons of corn to unknown destinations.
* Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn futures on Thursday, traders said.
* Soybeans faced some spillover pressure from weakness in the CBOT soymeal market on Thursday after news that Chinese buyers bought more meal from Argentina, though prices regained some ground on Friday. SMc1
MARKETS NEWS
* The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained ground on Thursday, and gold prices eased as investors digested a mixed batch of corporate earnings along with signs of progress in tariff negotiations between the U.S. and trading partners. MKTS/GLOB
Related Articles
September Global Central Bank Divergence: How Will U.S. Stocks and Forex Markets Move?
TradingKey - Despite the divergence in monetary policies among major global central banks in September (with the Federal Reserve cutting rates while the European Central Bank, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan maintain steady rates), we expect the policy directions of the Fed, ECB, and BoE to...
Duolingo (DUOL): Can the Green Bird Fly High Again
TradingKey - Duolingo is a great business, despite the stock price being down nearly 50% from its peak less than four months ago. However, the question is whether it’s worth buying it at a market cap of $12.5 billion. The answer is “not yet” because the traffic, even though healthy...
U.S. September Rate Decision Preview: What It Means for Bitcoin and Could It Spark a New Rally?
Bitcoin’s rally stalls ahead of the Fed meeting — has the bullish momentum already been priced in?
UK July GDP Commentary: Can GBP Break Through Its Current Fluctuation?
After considering multiple factors, given the evident weakness on both sides of this currency pair, we expect the GBP/USD exchange rate to maintain its current fluctuation trend in the short term.
Fed to Cut Rates: All Asset Prices Up!
TradingKey - The Federal Reserve is almost certain to restart its interest rate cut cycle on 17 September this year. After in-depth research, we have concluded that cryptocurrencies, the broader U.S. stock market, and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds will all go up.
