(Updates for market close)
CHICAGO, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybeans fell on Tuesday as participants adjusted positions ahead of the widely followed U.S. government crop forecasts on Wednesday.
Wheat also edged lower, with disruptions to Black Sea exports already factored into the market and reports of progress in talks to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz also hampering prices.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade settled 10-1/4 cents lower to $6.30-1/4 per bushel.
Wheat prices had risen earlier, adding to gains from the two previous sessions, supported by signs that attacks by Ukraine and Russia on each other’s shipping routes were reducing export flows.
Falling prices in Russia, slow international demand and efforts by Kyiv and Moscow to use alternative logistics routes have tempered market reaction to Black Sea tensions.
CBOT soybeans ended 10-1/4 cents lower to $11.68-3/4 per bushel, while corn ended 1-1/4 cents lower to $4.60-1/2 per bushel.
Grain markets were turning their attention towards the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s August supply-and-demand report that will be released on Wednesday, which will include highly anticipated revisions to the USDA’s outlook for this year’s U.S. corn and soybean harvests.
Ahead of the USDA’s monthly reports, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the agency to lower its estimate of the U.S. 2026 corn yield to 182.4 bushels per acre, from 183.0 previously. Analysts on average expect the USDA to lower its forecasts of U.S. 2025-26 and 2026-27 soybean ending stocks.
After Monday’s close, the USDA trimmed its weekly soybean condition rating while keeping its corn score steady.
Rain and milder temperatures aided both crops last week after excessive heat and dryness during July, analysts said.
“It’s tough to keep the market strong without consistent bullish news,” said Randy Place, analyst at Hightower Report. “It’s difficult to keep prices up when you have big rains coming just where producers need it.”
(Reporting by Heather Schlitz in Chicago. Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Daphne Zhang and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Tasim Zahid and Aurora Ellis)
