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Chicago agricultural commodities lower to close week

Xinhua, February 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn, soybeans extended their losses Friday, while wheat retreated after its Thursday modest climb.

The most active corn contract for May delivery fell 1 cent, or 0.28 percent, to close at 3.595 dollars per bushel. May wheat delivery shed 1.75 cents, or 0.39 percent, to close at 4.5225 dollars per bushel. May soybeans lost 2 cents, or 0.23 percent, to close at 8.635 dollars per bushel.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) concluded its two-day Agricultural Outlook Forum Friday and released its first formal grain outlook report for 2016, which analysts said is mainly bearish on agriculture commodities, especially corn and wheat.

According to the summary of the report, U.S. corn ending stocks for 2016/17 season are projected at 1,977 million bushels by USDA, up 8 percent from 2015/16, USDA added that it's the highest since 2004/05 when stocks last topped 2 billion bushels.

The U.S. wheat ending stocks increased 2 percent to 989 million bushels, the highest stocks since 1987/88 season.

As for the soybean, USDA projected U.S. corn ending stocks at 440 million bushels, down 10 percent from 2015/16. But analysts noted that soybeans continued its decline Friday as Brazil soybean harvest advanced.

Technical selling also pressed the price of corn, wheat and soybean lower Friday. CBOT floor brokers reported that funds have sold 6,000 contracts of corn, 2,100 contracts of wheat and 2,500 contracts of soybean before midday, according to Agresource, the Chicago-based agricultural consultancy.

The stronger U.S. dollar on Friday extended additional pressure on U.S. agricultural commodities as a stronger dollar make them more expensive for investors holding other currencies.

Based on the most-active contracts, corn, wheat and soybean declined 2.18 percent, 1.36 percent and 1.99 percent for the week, respectively. Endit