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Chicago wheat, corn, soybean lower on prospects of U.S. crop exports

Xinhua, December 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat, corn and soybean futures all settled lower on Monday, as U.S. weekly exports were lower than expected with U.S. crop shipments being far behind last year's pace.

CBOT grains led the losses as the most active wheat contract for March dropped 7.75 cents, or 1.59 percent, to close at 4.79 dollars per bushel; March corn lost 2.5 cents, or 0.67 percent, to close at 3.72 U.S. dollars per bushel.

Meanwhile, January soybeans delivery shed 1 cents, or 0.11 percent, to close at 8.9125 dollars per bushel.

Low volume was the feature of the day in a holiday-shortened week that closes early Thursday and is capped by Christmas, when most global markets will be closed.

The U.S. weekly export inspections released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA) on Monday showed that corn shipments through the week ending Dec. 17, were up almost 27 percent from the previous week, wheat exports logged an over-8-percent rise, soybean inspections added by more than 7 percent from the prior week, respectively.

However, for their respective crop years to date, the U.S. soybean shipments were down 11.7 percent from a year ago, and the drop is more than 3 percentage points higher compared to two weeks ago.

As for wheat, the U.S. exports registered an almost 14 percent decline from the previous year.

For corn, shipments were down over 22 percent from last year, and the drop is 2 percent lower from two weeks earlier, according to the USDA.

The U.S. export shipments were slightly below trade expectations and were seen as mildly bearish, according to analysts.

Based on the continued export of corn from Argentina and Brazil, the same analysts look for U.S.corn exports to decline further from the current USDA forecast of 1,750 million bushels, which will somehow raise U.S. corn stocks.

The market also came under pressure from the potential for farm sales from North America to South America in the new calendar year and the prospect for improved rainfall for the north of Brazil, a major global soybean exporter, during the next 10-to-15-day period.

There will remain a chance of moderate showers across the northern Brazil in the next 2 to 3 days. The rain chances then shift southward to the southern Brazil and much of Argentina late this week. The rains persist across the southern Brazil into early next week, according to the Global Forecast System. Endit