Chicago agricultural commodities settle mixed

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) grains futures close mixed on Wednesday, with wheat futures rising about 3 percent as signs of fresh export demand triggered a short-covering rally in the market.

Corn futures were choppy, paring early declines as wheat advanced. But soybeans fell, pressured by the expanding harvest of a likely record-large U.S. crop.

The most active corn contract for December delivery fell 0.5 cents, or 0.14 percent, to 3.4775 dollars per bushel.December wheat delivery rose 9.5 cents, or 2.4 percent, to 4.05 dollars per bushel. November soybeans dropped 6.75 cents, or 0.7 percent, to 9.5675 dollars per bushel.

Wheat rose on news that Morocco's grain agency bought 260,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat. "I think the Moroccan business helped a little bit," said Tom Fritz, partner with EFG Group in Chicago. "Now the shorts are falling all over themselves to get out, just based on the price action," Fritz said.

The bounce in wheat helped underpin corn futures, which were nearly flat late in the session.

But soybean futures fell on expectations for record-large yields. Informa Economics forecast U.S. 2016 soybean production at 4.3 billion bushels with a yield of 51.6 bushels per acre (bpa), trade sources said.

Earlier this week, commodity brokerage INTL FCStone raised its soybean yield estimate to a record 52.5 bpa.

Both firms' yield figures were above the U.S. Department of Agriculture's last official forecast of 50.6 bpa, signalling a possible increase when the government updates its figures on Oct. 12. Emdit