Chicago agricultural commodities close lower as big crops loom

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodities declined Tuesday on better-than-expected crop conditions and mounting expectations that U.S. farmers will again reap bumper crops this year.

The most active corn contract for December delivery declined 0.25 cents, or 0.07 percent, to 3.34 dollars per bushel. September wheat delivery was lower of 4.75 cents, or 1.17 percent, to 4.0125 dollars per bushel. November soybeans was down 8.5 cents, or 0.88 percent, to 9.53 dollars per bushel.

Prospects for robust U.S. corn and soybean crops set the tone. Commodity brokerage INTL FCStone on Monday projected U.S. 2016 corn production at 15.146 billion bushels and soybean production at 4.054 billion bushels. Both figures would be all-time highs, if realized.

Soybean futures led the declines, weighed down by improving U.S. crop conditions and speculation that government forecasters in a key supply-and-demand report next week will boost yield estimates, potentially foreshadowing a massive harvest to come in the fall.

Also Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its weekly soybean crop condition ratings and left its corn ratings unchanged, against market expectation for a decline.

Wheat prices sank to a fresh 10-year low, buffeted by abundant global supplies of the grain and the ongoing U.S. harvest. Growers in the southern Great Plains are nearly finished collecting a large winter wheat crop, which will pile onto huge domestic and world inventories, according to analysts. Endit