U.S. agricultural futures close mixed

CHICAGO, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures closed mixed on Monday, with corn and wheat falling and soybean rising.

The most active corn contract for March delivery fell 6.5 cents, or 0.97 percent, to settle at 6.635 U.S. dollars per bushel. March wheat lost 3.75 cents, or 0.46 percent, to settle at 8.1825 dollars per bushel. January soybean rose 8.5 cents, or 0.6 percent, to settle at 14.3675 dollars per bushel.

The rally in soy meal is offering support to soybeans. The tone of CBOT market is bearish, but few are willing to sell the break amid the positive seasonal tendencies of the CBOT heading into Thanksgiving holiday.

Crude oil prices have had an oversized impact on CBOT grain Monday. OPEC appears undecided on what it will do with its production in an early December meeting. Worrying about the coming U.S. rail strike and its impact on U.S. agricultural exports and biofuel production, Chicago-based research company AgResource suggests selling CBOT rallies.

U.S. export inspections for the week ending Nov. 17 were 19.5 million bushels of corn, 85.6 million bushels of soybeans and 10.3 million bushels of wheat.

For respective crop years to date, the United States has shipped 215.7 million bushels of corn, down 30 percent year on year; 629 million bushels of soybeans, down 10.5 percent; and 377 million bushels of wheat, down 2 percent. The shortfall of U.S. corn exports is growing and will be difficult to recover.

The tentative rail agreement put forth by the Biden administration could be in jeopardy as the U.S.'s largest rail union rejected the offer Monday. This takes the total to four rail unions that have rejected the pact. Amid the low flow of the Mississippi River that is already restricting grain movement to the U.S. Gulf, a rail strike would be a blow to U.S. agricultural exports and the domestic movement of ethanol and biodiesel from plant.

Brazil has a daily chance of rain for the next two weeks. The extended range forecast brings the moisture southward into Southern Brazil with fresh shower chances for Argentina in the 10-15 day period. The area of acute drought in Argentina will continue to shrink with time.