Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat, corn and soybean futures all rallied on Monday despite a stronger U.S. dollar, which weighed on dollar-denominated commodities.
Wheat led the gains in agricualtural commodites futures as March wheat delivery gained 7.75 cents, or 1.58 percent, to close at 4.9775 dollars per bushel. Meanwhile, the most active corn contract for December delivery added 4 cents, or 1.1 percent, to close at 3.6725 U.S. dollars per bushel. January soybeans rose 6.75 cents, or 0.79 percent, to close at 8.6425 dollars per bushel.
Chicago grains rose on Monday as investors saw U.S. wheat and corn exports had picked up significantly in recent two weeks. Traders believe that value-buying is supporting the market although the dollar remains strong.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) weekly export inspection report released Monday showed that corn shipments through the week ending Nov. 19 were up almost 30 percent from the previous week; wheat exports logged a over-17-percent drop; soybean inspections fell by about 15 percent. For their respective crop years to date, the U.S. has shipped 6, 415,291 metric tons of corn, down about 23 percent from a year ago.
However, the drop is 2 percentage points lower compared to two weeks ago. As for wheat, the U.S. has shipped 9,939,280 tons, down more than 11 percent from the previous year, but the drop is approximately 6 percentage points lower compared to two weeks earlier.
For soybeans, shipments were down about 7 percent from last year, according to the USDA. Soybean prices fell to their six and a half year lows in the morning trading, but regained their footings in late trading on short-covering after the USDA announced 251,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans were sold to an unknown buyer.
Analysts noted that the lack of a reaction to the Argentine election in the soybean markets could be a signal that the bear market is running out of steam. However, they also believed the news of Argentinian president-elect, who promised to lower soybean export taxes during his election campaign, will take at least 90 days to really impact the trade.
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