Chicago agricultural commodities futures went down across the board Monday, with corn, soybeans and wheat all falling heavily. The most active corn contract for December delivery fell 22 cents, or 4.92 percent, to close at 4.2525 U.S. dollars per bushel.
September wheat fell 16.25 cents, or 2.74 percent, to close at 5. 775 dollars per bushel. November soybean fell 70.75 cents, or 5.76 percent, to close at 11.5725 dollars per bushel. Corn, soybeans, and wheat all fell as the much-anticipated June Stocks and Seedings report released by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Monday was bearish for all grains.
The report put U.S. soybean acreage at 84.8 million acres ( about 34 million hectares), up 3.3 million acres from March and 8. 3 million acres from last year; U.S. corn acreage at 91.64 million acres, down just 50,000 acres from March; and Spring wheat acreage at 12.7 million acres, up 700,000 acres from March. Seedings figures are also bearish amid favorable U.S. weather.
The report showed that by June 1, corn stocks were at 3,854 million bushels. Analysts have used this to project ending stocks potentially up some 75 million to 100 million bushels from June World Agricultural Supply and Demand report (WASDE) by USDA.
Soybean stocks were put at 405 million bushels, 25 million bushels higher than expected but down 30 million bushels from last year.
Final wheat ending stocks were placed at 590 million, also above expectation. The extremely positive weather forecast also put heavy pressure on prices.