Chicago agricultural commodities close higher

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn settle higher for its sixth successive trading days on Friday, while wheat and soybeans also rebounded.

The most active corn contract for May delivery added 0.75 cents, or 0.21 percent, to 3.6225 dollars per bushel. May wheat delivery rose 3.25 cents, or 0.71 percent, to 4.6025 dollars per bushel. May soybeans advanced 12.25 cents, or 1.35 percent, to 9.1675 dollars per bushel.

For the week, corn advanced 2.33 percent, wheat and soybeans declined 3.26 percent and 0.16 percent respectively.

Corn continued advance on signs of new demands, analysts said. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday that private exporters reported export sales of 120,000 tons of corn for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2015/2016 marketing year. USDA already reported better-than-expected corn export sales during the week ending on March 31 in its weekly export report on Thursday.

Wheat rebounded on short covering Friday as wheat already fell for four consecutive sessions. The market brokers estimated that funds have bought a net 2.500 contracts of wheat before midday Friday, AgResource, a Chicago-based agriculture consultancy, said in its daily commentary.

Soybeans prices rebounded as soybean meal rallied on Friday. Additionally, short covering also gave support to soybeans, and brokers estimated that funds have bought a net 5,000 contracts of soybeans before midday, according to AgResource.

Some analysts noted that weaker U.S. dollar on Friday also helped U.S. agricultural commodities higher because a weaker dollar make them cheaper and more competitive on the global market.