Por Mark Weinraub
CHICAGO, USAOct 19 – US wheat and corn futures fell on Wednesday as weak demand in the export market weighed on prices.
* Soybeans also fell, but declines were kept at bay thanks to recent sales to foreign buyers and good demand for soybean meal.
* Attempts to rally soybeans were met with resistance by concerns that global buyers will shift their demand for soybeans to South American suppliers as soon as possible due to lower prices in countries such as Brazil and Argentina.
* “At least you can write export demand for grains is still better than last year,” said Mark Schultz, chief analyst at Northstar Commodity. “It may not be as good as we want and our window of opportunity is quite narrow right now to get the deal.”
* At 1620 GMTNovember soybean futures in Chicago were up 0.75 cent at $13.7275 a bushel.
* December corn was down 4.25 cents at $6.7675 a bushel and soft red winter wheat was down 9.50 cents at $8.40 a bushel.
* Wheat futures held above a four-week low of $8.3275 a bushel that the most active contract reached on Tuesday.
* Analysts had expected the US Department of Agriculture report to show wheat export sales were in a range between 200,000 and 550,000 tonnes in the week ended Oct. 13. This compares to 211,823 tonnes the previous week.
* Corn export sales were forecast between 250,000 and 775,000 tons and soybeans between 1.7 million and 2.8 million tons
* Wheat traders are also watching drought in the Argentine and US wheat belts, torrential rains in parts of Australia ahead of harvest, and slow planting pace in the United States as risks to global supply. Ukraine.
