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Chicago corn, wheat higher despite stronger U.S. dollar

Xinhua, March 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn and wheat futures closed higher on Monday as investors covered shorts amid weather concerns, despite a stronger U.S. dollar.

Chicago corn led gains as the most active corn contract for May delivery gained 3.75 cents, or 1.03 percent, to close at 3.6875 U.S. dollars per bushel. Wheat for May delivery rose 3 cents, or 0.63 percent, to close at 4.7875 dollars per bushel. May soybean delivery was unchanged, to close at 8.9575 dollars per bushel.

Corn prices rallied strongly on investor short-covering as flooding conditions delayed early corn planting across southern United States. On Sunday, President Barack Obama declared historic flooding in Louisiana a major disaster. Rivers continued to rise to record levels in parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday, according to local media.

Meanwhile, the weather service predicts a lack of any meaningful rainfall chances for the dry areas of western U.S. Plains, lifting worries on U.S. wheat growing there and sending Chicago wheat higher.

The weekly grain export inspections released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday showed the shipments of U.S. corn and soybeans through the week ending March 10 were both higher than the same week last year, while wheat inspections were down almost 22 percent compared with the same week last year.

Analysts said the pace of U.S. wheat export for the week was on the low end of trade expectations.

For their respective crop year to date, the drops of U.S. corn, soybean shipments from a year ago are lower about 2 percentage points compared to a couple of weeks ago, respectively, according to the same report.

The stronger greenback, however, capped Chicago grains and soybeans gains on Monday. The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the dollar against six major currencies, at one time rose by more than 0.5 percent in the morning session ahead of a policy meeting by the U.S. Federal Reserve, cutting the appeal of dollar-denominated commodities. Enditem