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Chicago agricultural commodities close mixed

Xinhua, December 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) grains futures close mixed on Thursday with soybean futures tumbling as investors shrug off continued demand from Asian market and liquidate positions amid a record crop.

The most active corn contract for March delivery fell 4.5 cents, or 1.26 percent, to 3.535 dollars per bushel. March wheat delivery added 7.25 cents, or 1.81 percent, to 4.0825 dollars per bushel. January soybeans dropped 22 cents, or 2.1 percent, to 10.27 dollars per bushel.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the nation's Environmental Protection Agency also sparked worries of reduced support for corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel. U.S. renewable fuel credits fell sharply following the EPA news.

Commodity funds were net sellers of 15,000 soybean contracts, traders estimated.

Brazil's government crop supply agency estimated the country's soy harvest at a record 102.45 million tonnes. Dry parts of Argentina may see rains within the next two weeks, meteorologists said.

Wheat climbed after Saudi Arabia said it was seeking global offers for 715,000 tonnes of hard wheat for delivery between Feb. 1 and April 10.

India also scrapped its 10 percent wheat import duty on Thursday after two years of drought depleted stocks and raised prices. Traders said the move could lift import purchases to the highest in a decade.

Also, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday is expected to boost supply expectations for Brazil and Argentina soybean production and narrowly reduce U.S. soy ending stocks, according to Reuters' analyst poll.

Commerzbank analysts in a report said supplies of key agricultural products including soybeans, corn and wheat are "set to remain comfortable in 2017, meaning limited potential for prices to recover."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected production of 4.36 billion bushels of soybeans on yields of 52.5 bushels an acre. Corn output is pegged at 15.2 billion bushels on yields of 175.3 bushels an acre. All of those figures are records, according to USDA data. Endit