Chicago corn futures lost more ground on Wednesday, with prices weighed down by expectations of a record U.S. harvest, which is prompting farmers to sell their stored crops.

Wheat fell for the first time in three sessions, while soybeans were largely unchanged.

“The corn market is under seasonal pressure ahead of the U.S. harvest which is likely to be all time high,” said one grains trader in Singapore.

The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) ZC1! fell 0.5% to $4.07-1/2 a bushel, as of 0922 GMT, wheat ZW1! lost 0.7% to $5.28-1/4 a bushel and soybeans ZS1! were flat at $10.49-1/2 4 a bushel.

U.S. farmers are on track to harvest the nation’s biggest corn crop in history this autumn and a bumper soybean crop.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its good-to-excellent rating for soybeans and kept its corn crop rating steady in a weekly report on Monday, surprising analysts who had expected slight declines.

The agency rated 71% of the corn crop as being in good or excellent shape as of August 24, unchanged from a week earlier. It increased the soybean crop rating to 69% good-to-excellent, up from 68% the previous week.

Corn prices have been weighed down by selling pressure as farmers clear their old-crop corn to make room for a hefty new harvest.

The focus in the soybean market is turning to likely U.S.-China talks this week as China continues to stay away from the market amid Washington-Beijing trade tensions.

Senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang is expected to travel to Washington this week to meet U.S. officials, a United States government spokesperson said, with the two superpowers looking to chart a path beyond their current tariff truce.

Russia’s IKAR consultancy has raised its 2025 wheat crop forecast to 86.0 million metric tons, up from 85.5 million tons previously, and lifted its wheat export outlook to 43.0 million tons, up from 42.5 million tons. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter.
Source: Reuters