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Chicago agricultural commodities settle lower

Xinhua, March 3, 2017 Adjust font size:

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) grains futures closed lower on Thursday with soybean futures falling, pressured by the ongoing harvest of a projected record-large crop in Brazil and profit-taking after a two-session climb attributed to fund buying.

Corn futures and wheat futures were also lower.

The most active corn contract for May delivery fell 2.5 cents, or 0.65 percent, to 3.795 dollars per bushel. May wheat delivery fell 4.25 cents, or 0.93 percent, to 4.5275 dollars per bushel. May soybeans dropped 14.5 cents, or 1.38 percent, to 10.3725 dollars per bushel.

Soybean futures sagged as expectations of Brazil's soybean harvest continued to rise. Informa Economics raised its forecast of Brazil's crop to a record-high 108 million tons, up 2 million tons from its previous estimate.

The figure is above the last monthly estimate from Brazil's government agency Conab, which put the crop at 105.6 million tons, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's figure of 104 million tons.

The White House on Tuesday denied that President Donald Trump planned to issue an executive order to change the national biofuels program, after the U.S. Renewable Fuels Association said Trump's team had informed the group an order was pending.

Wheat was pressured by strength in the dollar, which tends to make U.S. grains less competitive on the global market.

The dollar rose to seven-week highs against a basket of currencies after hawkish comments by a Federal Reserve official late on Wednesday encouraged investors to expect a near-term interest rate hike.

The USDA weekly export sales report released Thursday indicated that for the week ending Feb 23rd, the U.S. sold 13 million bushels of wheat, 27.3 million bushels of corn, and 15.7 million bushels of soybeans to international destinations. Enditem