Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodities closed mixed on Tuesday, with soybean and wheat futures extending losses on export concerns, while corn prices bouncing back ahead of a key U.S. government crop estimate report.
The most active corn contract for March delivery added 0.5 cents, or 0.13 percent, to close at 3.735 U.S. dollars per bushel. Wheat for March delivery slipped 1.25 cents, or 0.26 percent, to close at 4.815 dollars per bushel. January soybeans delivery dropped 5.5 cents, or 0.62 percent, to close at 8.7675 dollars per bushel.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will release its World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report for December on Wednesday. As the WASDE report is expected to raise the U.S. corn demand for ethanol production, Chicago corn rallied slightly on Tuesday from the previous big drop.
"WASDE could tinker and cut U.S. corn exports by 50-100 Million Bushels and raise corn ethanol use for ethanol by 50 Million Bushels. No real stock changes are expected in wheat or the soybean U.S. S&D's. It's world corn, soybean and wheat stocks that are likely to be the driver of CBOT valuations," said AgResource company, a Chicago-based agricultural research institute.
Soybean prices extended their losses for a second day in a row on concerns that U.S. soybean export pace could be slowing down further if Argentina, a major international soybean exporter, would let its currency float freely after President-elect Mauricio Macri takes office on Dec. 10.
Chicago wheat was put under some pressure for the day by weaker prices in the Black sea and Western Europe. Analysts suggested Europe's wheat surplus is much larger, and that there is room for the USDA to lower its U.S. export forecasts further.
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