Chicago agricultural commodities closed lower

Chicago agricultural commodities closed lower Thursday with all three major commodities falling.

The most active corn contract for March delivery fell 4.25 cents, or 1.10 percent, to close at 3.8375 U.S. dollars per bushel. Soybeans for March delivery dropped 6.75 cents, or 0.69 percent, to close at 9.7675 dollars per bushel. Wheat for March delivery lost 3 cents, or 0.56 percent, to close at 5.3375 dollars per bushel.

Soybeans are leading the way lower as end users are shifting their purchases to South American origin and there are no new sales announcements,according to analysts. Meanwhile, the Brazilian harvest and loading program that will begin in two to three weeks further pushed down the price of soybeans.

Although European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi announced a plan to inject 60 billion euros every month into the eurozone economy via bond purchases, analysts said it will take time to gauge the effect of the ECB's plan.

Corn was put under pressure as the U.S. Department of Energy said on Thursday that U.S. Ethanol production through the week ending Friday totaled 287.8 million gallons, up fractionally from the prior week.

Wheat's fall was curbed by an agreement reached between Ukrainian traders and the government, which will restrict export shipments to 1.2 million metric tons between January and June 2015.

Analysts say the South American weather outlook is nearly ideal as the weather forecast for far Eastern Brazil is wetter, while heavy rain is expected in Central and Northern Brazil for the next five to seven days, but analysts say a lack of soaking rain in Mato Grosso, Brazil will allow for a smooth early harvest. A more normal pattern of rain also returns to central Argentina in early February. Endite