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Chicago wheat rallies for third straight session; corn, soybeans traded lower

Xinhua, January 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat, corn and soybean futures on Thursday closed mixed with wheat prices rallying for a third straight session on weather concerns and a weak U.S. dollar, while corn and soybeans going slightly lower.

The most active wheat contract for March delivery rallied 5.75 cents, or 1.24 percent, to close at 4.685 dollars per bushel. Corn for March delivery lost 0.25 cents, or 0.07 percent, to close at 3.53 U.S. dollars per bushel. Soybean for March delivery dropped 0.25 cents, or 0.03 percent, to close at 8.645 dollars per bushel.

Chicago wheat extended gains to a third session in a row Thursday, as concerns that adverse weather in the winter wheat growing belts of the United States could reduce yields underpinned wheat futures, although gains were tempered by slow export demand for U.S. supplies.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Thursday in its weekly export sales report that for the week ending Dec. 31, the United States witnessed an increase of 8 percent in wheat export from the previous week. Corn exports were down 36 percent from the previous week, while soybean export sales rose by 33 percent from the previous week.

"For their respective marketing years to date, U.S. corn export commitments are down 25 percent from a year ago and a disappointing 46 percent of the USDA's annual forecast (on average corn sales as of Dec 31 account for over 50 percent of final shipments)," said AgResource company, a Chicago-based agricultural research institute, in a research note. "Cumulative wheat, commitments fell by 15 percent from last year,and soybean commitments were down 11 percent."

The company also said the USDA is very likely to reduce its corn export forecast in next week's crop estimate report.

Chicago grains and soybeans, however, got some support from the weak greenback for the day. The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the dollar against six major currencies, on Thursday fell by more than 1 percent on the prospects that the Federal Reserve rate-hike cycle would not be continued in the near future amid the current plunge of global financial market worsening, which supported the dollar-denominated agricultural commodities. Endit