Soft commodities price watch: Soybeans and corn hit multi-week lows

Grain futures are mixed today, with corn and soybean prices having hit multi-week lows amid speculation that dry weather in the US Midwest will aid maturing crops and harvesting.

According to World Ag Weather, the Midwest is forecast to remain mostly dry in the next three days. Drier weather this week will favour harvesting, with no significant cold-weather threat, DTN wrote in a report on Friday. Investors now expect the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) weekly update on crop conditions due to be released later today.

The soybean price for November delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was 0.23 percent down at $13.1225 a bushel as of 14:00 BST, after having earlier fallen to $13.0775 a bushel, the lowest level since August 23. Futures dropped 4.8 percent last week, and have declined in six out of seven sessions.

The corn price has also retreated with the CBOT contract for December delivery down 0.5 percent at $4.4875 a bushel as of:14:05 BST, after having fallen by as much as 0.6 percent earlier in the day to hit a session low of $4.4838 a bushel, the weakest since August 13.

Elsewhere on the CBOT, wheat for delivery in December rose 0.1 percent to $6.4675 a bushel, while milling wheat for November delivery on NYSE Liffe in Paris was unchanged at €185.75 a tonne.

Sugar at One-Month Low

Sugar has today declined the most in almost four weeks in New York on signs supplies are expanding in India, the world’s second-biggest producer, Thailand and China.

The Indian Sugar Mills Association last week said that sugar production in India will be 25 million metric tonnes in 2013-14, 5.5 percent more than estimated in July with the best monsoon rainfall in almost two decades boosting yields. An “excellent monsoon” will also mean bigger output in China and Thailand, the second-biggest exporter, Tom McNeill, a director at Brisbane, Australia-based sugar and biofuels researcher Green Pool Commodity Specialists Pty. told Bloomberg today.

Sugar falls the most in a month on expanding supply in Asia

The raw sugar price for delivery in March ICE Futures U.S. in New York has fallen 0.29 percent to $0.1767 a pound by 14:10 BST today. Earlier during the session, the contract fell as much as 1.2 percent, the most since August 27. White sugar for December delivery on NYSE Liffe in London has slid 0.4 percent to $484.30 a tonne.

Among other soft commodities, the Arabica coffee price for December delivery today rose as much as 1.44 percent to $1.1630 a pound in New York, while Robusta coffee for delivery in November declined by 0.1 percent to $1,677 a tonne in London.

ICE cocoa for December delivery was 0.3 percent higher at $2,616 a tonne as of 14:15 BST, while the contract for the same month of delivery on NYSE Liffe was up 0.3 percent at £1,705 a tonne.