June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Corn fell, heading for the biggest weekly slump since April, on signs of slowing global demand as farmers complete planting of a record crop in the U.S., the world’s top exporter. Wheat and soybeans also declined.
Export sales of corn in the week to June 6 slid to 149,460 metric tons, the lowest since January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday. Farmers may harvest 14.005 billion bushels, 30 percent more than a year earlier, boosting global production by 12 percent to a record, the USDA said June 12. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its price forecast yesterday, citing the U.S. recovery from last year’s drought.
“Global supplies are on the rise, and that has reduced demand for U.S. corn,” Greg Grow, the director of agribusiness for Archer Financial Services Inc. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “The weather forecasts for warm temperatures and regular rains should improve U.S. crop potential. We are shifting to a more plentiful supply outlook.”
Corn futures for delivery in December, after the harvest, fell 0.6 percent to $5.32 a bushel at 9:57 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. A close at that price would mark a 4.7 percent drop for the week, the most since the five days ended April 5.
Goldman cut its price forecast to $4.75 from $5.25, adding that soybeans will drop to $11 a bushel, compared with a previous outlook at $12.50. The forecasts are for trading in three, six and 12 months.
Corn futures for July delivery rose 0.8 percent to $6.4875, as farmers withheld supplies from last year’s drought-reduced harvest, Grow said.
Soybean futures for delivery in November slipped 0.8 percent to $12.9025 on the CBOT, leaving prices down 3 percent for the week. The U.S. harvest will surge 12 percent this year to a record 3.39 billion bushels, according to the USDA.
Wheat futures for delivery in July declined 1.2 percent to $6.775 a bushel in Chicago, heading for a second straight weekly decline as harvesting advances across the U.S., the world’s largest exporter.
--With assistance from Ranjeetha Pakiam in Kuala Lumpur and Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore. Editors: Steve Stroth, Patrick McKiernan
To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Wilson in Chicago at jwilson29@bloomberg.net; Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net
