Investing.com - U.S. corn futures traded near the lowest level in four years on Tuesday, amid ongoing expectations for a record U.S. corn harvest.
On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, U.S. corn for September delivery inched down 0.45%, or 1.73 cents, to trade at $3.7888 a bushel during U.S. morning hours.
The September corn contract fell to $3.7400 a bushel on Monday, the weakest level since July 2010, before turning higher to settle at $3.8140, up 0.86%, or 3.2 cents.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that nearly 76% of the U.S. corn crop was rated “good” to “excellent” as of July 13, the highest rating for this time of year since 1994.
Last week, the USDA raised its estimate for U.S. corn inventories at the end of August to 1.246 billion bushels, up 8% from its forecast in June.
Meanwhile, U.S. soybeans for August delivery shed 0.79%, or 9.45 cents, to trade at $11.8675 a bushel. The August soybean contract eased up 0.1%, or 1.2 cents, on Monday to settle at $11.9700.
Soybean prices fell to a two-and-a-half year low of $11.5920 last Friday after the USDA raised its forecast for the U.S. soybean harvest by 4.5% to a record 3.8 billion bushels, above expectations for a 3.1% increase.
The agency also increased its forecast for soybean inventories by a larger-than-expected 12% to 140 million bushels.
According to the agency, approximately 72% of the U.S. soy crop was rated “good” to “excellent” as of last week, the best condition for mid-July in 20 years.
Elsewhere on the CBOT, U.S. wheat for September delivery declined 0.23%, or 1.25 cents, to trade at $5.3575 a bushel.
The September wheat contract fell to a four-year low of $5.2420 on Monday, before erasing losses to settle at $5.3760, up 2.23%, or 11.6 cents.
Expectations for ample global supplies continued to weigh after the USDA last week raised its outlook for global inventories at the end of the 2014-15 season that started on June 1 to 189.54 million metric tons from the 188.61 million tons forecast last month.
Corn is the biggest U.S. crop, followed by soybeans, government figures show. Wheat was fourth, behind hay.