Wheat futures declined on Friday, marking their first daily loss in nine sessions, while soybean futures ended lower after a monthly supply-and-demand report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The government agency raised its forecast for global wheat production by about 1 million metric tons to 783.01 million for the 2023-24 marketing year.
While there is plenty of wheat, it’s “interesting that the world is projected to use more wheat than it produces,” said Sal Gilbertie, chief executive officer at Teucrium Trading.
The USDA expects to see wheat output of 783.01 million metric tons for the 2023-24 marketing year, while total use is seen at 794.66 million metric tons.
“China is importing wheat, which is providing some support to wheat prices of late,” Gilbertie said.
In Chicago, the most-active March wheat futures contract
WH24,
-0.09%
W00,
-0.09%
settled at $6.32 a bushel, down 11 cents, or 1.6%. It settled up 5% for the week, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The decline followed gains in each of the past eight trading sessions, which was the longest streak of daily gains since July 2012.
For soybeans, the USDA lowered its forecast for 2023-24 global production by 1.5 million metric tons to 398.88 million metric tons due to lower production in Brazil. It also raised Brazil’s soybean-export forecast by 2 million metric tons to 99.5 million metric tons and left its U.S. export forecast unchanged at 47.76 million metric tons.
“This continues to indicate the U.S. remains a secondary player in the global soybean market due to the ongoing trade war with China,” said Darin Newsom, senior market analyst at Barchart.
January soybeans
SF24
S00,
-1.75%
fell 8 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $13.04 a bushel, losing 1.4% for the week.
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