Chicago agricultural commodities settle mixed

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) grains futures close mixed on Monday, with corn and soybean futures rising while wheat declining after Friday's quarterly grain stockpiles report.

The most active corn contract for December delivery rose 9.25 cents, or 2.75 percent, to 3.46 dollars per bushel. December wheat delivery dropped 6.5 cents, or 1.62 percent, to 3.955 dollars per bushel. November soybeans rose 19 cents, or 1.99 percent, to 9.73 dollars per bushel.

The positive signals for corn demand came as asset managers plowed fresh capital into corn and soybean markets Monday, which marked the start of a new quarter and an opening for some funds to deploy further capital into commodity markets, analysts said.

Traders are looking ahead to that report to see if the USDA continues to project a record-breaking soybean crop as well, which could keep soybean futures trading within the same roughly 50-cent range that they have covered over the past month.

The USDA on Friday said U.S. wheat stocks as of Sept. 1 were the biggest since 1987, while corn supplies were smaller than expected.

On Monday, the USDA also reported increases in export inspections for corn and soybeans from the previous week, with a drop for wheat.

Traders attributed some of Friday's gains to fund managers closing out longer-standing bets that wheat prices would fall. On Monday, wheat futures' decline represented what some said was the more fundamental picture facing the world's most widely grown grain.

"The world is saturated with wheat," said Mr. Roose, a scenario which continues to encourage commodity-trading funds to bet against the contracts.

After markets closed, the USDA's weekly update on U.S. Crop progress estimated the corn and soybean harvest at 24 percent and 26 percent complete respectively as of Sunday. Analysts' estimates of harvest progress ranged from 22 percent to 28 percent for soybeans and from 23 percent to 30 percent for corn.

Source : XINHUA