CHICAGO- Chicago wheat dropped for a second day on Friday, moving further from a 3-1/2-month high reached this week as a stronger dollar made US exports look less attractive.
Corn futures also eased for a second session following a three-month peak this week, and soybeans headed downward with technical trading and the rally in the dollar at play, analysts said.
Stronger-than-expected US jobs data for September spurred the dollar to jump to a seven-week high. A stronger dollar tends to make US exports less competitive on the global market.
The most active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade settled down 13-3/4 cents at $5.89-3/4 a bushel, after reaching its highest point since mid-June on Wednesday and Thursday.
The dollar’s rise comes at a bad time, Hightower Report analyst Randy Place said, because US farmers are expected to harvest a record soy crop and the second biggest corn crop in history.
“A bump up in exports is kind of what we needed with the bumper harvest,” Place said.
CBOT soybeans dipped 8-1/4 cents to end at $10.37-3/4 a bushel. CBOT corn closed down 3-1/2 cents at $4.24-3/4 a bushel.
Wheat’s losses were capped by ongoing concerns about dry weather in the Black Sea region, and the latest Russian attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure.
In soybeans, the start of the long-awaited monsoon season in Brazil is expected in the second half of the next week, said Place, after dryness delayed early soybean plantings in the world’s top soy exporter.
