Chicago agricultural commodities close lower on profit-taking, ample supplies

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn, wheat and soybeans all retreated from their previous sharp gains and settled slightly lower on profit-taking and ample supplies Wednesday.

The most active corn contract for July delivery fell 3.50 cents, or 0.92 percent, to close at 3.775 dollars per bushel. July wheat delivery lost 2.25 cents, or 0.49 percent, to close at 4.59 dollars per bushel. July soybeans declined 5.75 cents, or 0.53 percent, to close at 10.7825 dollars per bushel.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said that in the week ending May 6, U.S. production of corn-based ethanol production was 962,000 barrels per day, higher than previous week's 923,000, while the stocks were lower than that of the previous week.

Analysts noted that these figures should be bullish for corn on Wednesday, but the crop dropped slightly on profit taking after gaining more than 3 percent on Tuesday.

Soybeans also retreated on technical buying Wednesday after rallying more than 5 percent in the previous session.

Wheat futures ended lower on ampler supplies, one day after the USDA report which showed that U.S. wheat supplies for 2016/17 were projected to increase 6 percent from the previous year, and the U.S. wheat ending stocks were projected to rise 51 million bushels to 1,029 million, the highest since the 1987/88.

Meanwhile, the global wheat supplies were projected to rise 2 percent from previous year by USDA, according to the report. Endit