CHICAGO, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. soybean futures fell to their lowest level in nearly four years on Monday on strong Midwest crop prospects and worries about demand for the oilseed, analysts said.
Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell to life-of-contract lows, and corn futures also declined but hovered just above contract lows.
As of 12:52 p.m. CDT (1752 GMT), CBOT November soybeans were down 24-1/4 cents at $10.41 per bushel after hitting $10.39-1/2, the lowest level on a continuous chart of the most-active soybean contract since October 2020.
CBOT September wheat was down 17-1/4 cents at $5.33-1/2 a bushel after setting a contract low at $5.31-1/2. December corn was down 10 cents at $4.04-3/4.
Analysts believe that U.S. crops benefited last week from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl, which brought showers to dry areas of the eastern Midwest crop belt. More rain fell over the weekend, and forecasts called for mild temperatures later this week.
Ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
weekly crop progress report
due later on Monday, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expect the government to rate 69% of the U.S. corn and soybean crops in good to excellent condition, up 1 percentage point from last week. If confirmed, the ratings for corn would be the highest for this time of year since 2020 and the highest since 2018 for soybeans.
"Wheat, corn and soybeans are weakened ... with U.S. weather forecast to be overall non-threatening to crops this week," said Matt Ammermann, StoneX commodity risk manager.
Soybeans faced additional pressure from a smaller-than-expected
crushing pace
in June. The National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) said its members, which account for around 95% of soybeans crushed in the United States, processed 175.599 million bushels of soybeans last month, below most trade estimates.
Separately, the USDA reported
export inspections
of U.S. soybeans in the latest week at 168,593 metric tons, below a range of
trade expectations
.
Some analysts attributed declines in the CBOT soy complex on a greater chance that presidential candidate Donald Trump will win a second term after surviving an
assassination attempt
. A second Trump term could signal
trade tensions
with China, the world's top soy buyer.
"The assassination attempt on Trump on the weekend, that gave him a better chance of him winning the election, and that has some people like the Chinese maybe concerned about tariffs, and slowing their buying," said Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co.
Wheat was pressured by the ongoing Northern Hemisphere winter wheat harvest and news that Russia's IKAR agricultural consultancy
raised its forecast
for the country's wheat crop to 83.2 million metric tons, from 82 million tons previously. Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Leslie Adler)
