Corn, soybeans down, wheat dips on rainfall

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodities closed lower Monday with wheat decreasing nearly 5 percent as rain fell over the dry wheat-growing areas of the central and southern Plains.

The most active corn contract for May delivery fell 6.5 cents, or 1.72 percent, to close at 3.705 U.S. dollars per bushel. Wheat for May delivery decreased 24.25 cents, or 4.61 percent, to close at 5.0225 dollars per bushel. May soybeans lost 2.75 cents, or 0. 29 percent, to close at 9.4875 dollars per bushel.

U.S. wheat tumbled nearly 5 percent because rain fell over the central and southern Plains, the main wheat-growing areas in the United States. More rainfall is expected there this week. The much- needed rain sank the wheat markets.

Concerns about persistent southern plains dryness have supported wheat futures, which rose 1.5 percent on Friday because of short-covering on worries that dry weather would curb yields there.

CBOT floor brokers reported the sale of 7,000 wheat contracts before midday, according to AgResource company, a Chicago-based agricultural research institute.

As for the corn, trade rumors goes that Argentina will release another corn export licenses in the next few days, AgResource said in its daily report, adding that this put pressure on corn as more cheap corn will be exported.

Meanwhile, Brazil is expecting bumper corn harvest. The official Conab, crop bureau of Brazil, lifted on Friday the production of corn in 2014-15 to some 79 million tonnes from 78.21 million tonnes.

Soybeans also fell amid plenty world supplies. Conab lifted Brazil's soybean production in 2014-15 to 94.3 million tonnes from 93.3 million.