Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodities closed mixed on Monday with wheat, corn rallying amid weather concerns and a weaker U.S. dollar, while soybeans stepped back from their over-5-month highs on profit-taking.
The most active wheat contract for May delivery gained 8 cents, or 1.73 percent, to close at 4.71 U.S. dollars per bushel. May corn delivery added 0.5 cent, or 0.14 percent, to close at 3.705 U. S. dollars per bushel.
Meanwhile, soybean for May delivery dropped 1.5 cents, or 0.16 percent, to close at 9.09 dollars per bushel. Wheat prices advanced strongly Monday as the U.S. weather model showed dryness will persist across the southwestern U.S. plains, where much of the country's hard-red winter wheat is grown, triggering more worries that spreading drought conditions would damage the crop.
Analysts said European markets closed on Monday for the Eastern holiday, allowing Chicago wheat to surge on sizeable fund short covering which has dragged along soybeans. The U.S. weekly export inspections released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday showed that shipments of corn, wheat and soybean through the week ending March 24 were somehow down from the previous week, respectively.
However, analysts noted that the export paces of three major crops were all in line with expectations. For their respective crop years to date, the U.S. corn shipments were down about 16.7 percent from a year ago, but the shortfall is almost 4 percentage points lower compared to one month ago.
As for wheat, the U.S. exports fell by more than 12 percent from the previous year, while soybean shipments were down about 6. 5 percent from last year, according to the USDA.
The USDA will release its grain stock report on Thursday March 31, which is expected to show record or near record stocks of U.S. corn, soybean and wheat as of March 1. CBOT grain futures also have pulled upward for the day, amid the weakness in the U.S. dollar, supporting dollar-denominated commodities.
The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the dollar against six major currencies, lost more than 0.3 percent as U.S. inflation data was on the soft, pushing back chances for a possible rate increase by the U.S. central bank.
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