Chicago agricultural commodities open mixed

CHICAGO, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodities opened mixed with soybeans futures rallying on concerns about hot and dry weather in South America.

There was not much fresh demand news over the Christmas holiday and the CBOT focus will be on positioning into a new tax year and South American weather for price direction. The heart of the South American growing season is just ahead.

March corn were down 1 cent at 3.52 U.S. dollars per bushel as of 1600 GMT in the morning trading, March wheat was down 2.75 cents at 4.22 dollars, while January soybeans was up 9.25 cents at 9.695 dollars.

The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed that managed money is short 154,000 contracts of wheat, short 222,000 contracts of corn, and 41,000 contracts of soybeans.

As for international market, Malaysian palm oil futures jumped to strong 2 percent gains overnight based on better than expected December export demand. Malaysian December palm oil exports are estimated to be up 1 percent, which was surprising following the doubling of Indian import duties. The firmer palm oil futures are likely to support soy oil.

Kazakhstan will buy 2 million tonnes of wheat from its farmers in an effort to support their domestic prices. The move follows talk from Russia that it will secure 2-3 million tonnes of wheat to underpin its domestic wheat market. Enditem