Chicago agricultural commodities soar as rains delay planting

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn, wheat and soybeans futures jumped Thursday on concerns that excessive rains in the Midwest grain belt could curb otherwise ample supplies.

The most active corn contract for July delivery rose 10.00 cents, or 2.73 percent, to close at 3.765 U.S. dollars per bushel. September wheat delivery added 14.75 cents, or 2.82 percent, to close at 5.38 dollars per bushel. July soybeans gained 18.50 cents, or 1.88 percent, to close at 10.0025 dollars per bushel.

All three grains saw massive fund buying Thursday. According to Agresource, funds have bought around 17,000 contracts of corn, 5, 500 contracts of wheat, and 13,000 contracts of soybeans.

The downpours across the U.S. grain belt swamped fields in parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, raising fears of lost yield potential.

International Grains Council cut on Thursday its forecast of world wheat production by 4 million tonnes to a three-year low of 711 million tonnes, which some analysts said also pushed wheat higher.

The United States Department of Agriculture said Thursday in its weekly U.S. Export Sales Report that corn net sales total at around 0.50 million tons for delivery in 2014/2015, down 21 percent from the previous week and 11 percent from the prior 4- week average.

The same report said that soybeans net sales total at 0.12 million tons for 2014/2015, down 11 percent from the previous week and 37 percent from the prior four-week average. Endite