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Corn prices set 4-month high

LONDON - US new-crop corn futures jumped more than 4 percent on Monday to the highest level since early February as hot, dry weather in the key Midwest growing region reduced the outlook for yields.

Soybean prices on the Chicago Board of Trade also rose, with new-crop November setting a contract high, while wheat joined the advance, buoyed additionally by diminished crop prospects in the Black Sea region.

“It is very much a weather-related rally in this session,” said Luke Mathews, commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

“Corn and soybeans are drawing support from dryness in the eastern corn-belt in the United States and wheat is drawing support from dryness in Ukraine and Russia.”

CBOT December corn stood 21-3/4 cents or 3.9 percent higher at $5.75-3/4 a bushel at 1127 GMT after peaking at $5.79-3/4, the highest price for the contract since Feb. 7.

The key new crop contract has now risen nearly 15 percent after trading as low as $5.06 a bushel in mid-June.

“The predictions for the expected average yields of US corn are being reduced as the hot and dry weather in the U.S. continues, especially in the southern Midwest,” Commerzbank said in a market note on Monday.

Macquarie Capital, in a report received on Monday, cut its forecast for the U.S. corn yield to 156.5 bushels an acre, significantly below the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s current forecast of 166 bushels.

Condition ratings for the US corn crop have shed 14 percentage points from good-to-excellent since the season began. The market is prepared for another 2 to 3 point drop in the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) weekly crop progress report later on Monday.

The deteriorating conditions have prompted large speculators to turn bullish while overall managed money has been increasing a net long position in corn.

Large speculators took a net long position in CBOT corn futures and options, reversing course after taking a bearish short bet two weeks ago for the first time since the summer of 2010, regulatory data released on Friday showed.

Tight stocks

Corn and soybean crops in the US Midwest have endured dry, hot conditions at a time when the market is relying on a bumper harvest to rebuild tight stocks. The US corn stockpile is projected to fall to a 16-year low by Aug. 31.

Soybean prices also rose sharply on Monday with CBOT November up 44 cents or 3.2 percent at $14.19-1/2 a bushel after earlier setting a contract high of $14.25-1/4.

Traders cited fears that dry weather would impede the planting of the last of the US soybean crop, including so-called “double-crop” soybeans that are planted on recently harvested winter wheat fields.

Wheat prices also rose with CBOT September up 17-1/2 cents or 2.55 percent at $7.05 a bushel after setting a one-month peak of $7.13-1/4 while November wheat in Paris climbed 3.25 euros or 1.5 percent to 219.75 euros a tonne.

“The drought in the US is driving the rise,” a European broker said, adding that concerns about a drop in quality to French wheat crops after new showers over the week-end added nervousness in the market.