2023-12-04 22:21:15
The Chicago Board of Trade rose nearly 3% on Monday, with the most active contract hitting its highest level since late August, following the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the largest private sale at China for years.
Corn finished mixed, supported by a favorable export inspection report from the US government, while soybeans fell, hitting their lowest level in a month.
CBOT March wheat settled up 17-3/4 cents at $6.20-1/2 a bushel following hitting $6.26-1/2, its highest level since Oct. 20 and its highest level on the continuous chart of the most active contract since August 28.
Wheat jumped following the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed private sales of 440,000 metric tons of U.S. soft red winter wheat to China, representing the largest purchase of U.S. wheat by the Asian country since at least 2020.
“I think the fact that China is buying American soft red wheat and not buying it from the Black Sea suggests that we are finally starting to see stable prices,” said Mike Zuzolo, president of Global Commodity Analytics.
Meanwhile, the CBOT January soybean price ended down 18-3/4 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $13.06-1/4 per bushel, its lowest level since Oct. 31. Analysts continued to monitor weather conditions in drought-stricken Brazil, where forecasts of rain are helping to ease concerns regarding crop losses at the world’s largest soybean supplier.
“We will know a lot more by mid-December; this is the critical period for South American production in terms of potential irreversible losses,” Mr Zuzolo said.
Actively traded March corn gained 3/4 of a cent to $4.85-1/2 a bushel, but remained within Friday’s range.
Corn was supported by the USDA’s weekly export inspections report, which indicates that more than 1.2 million metric tons of the yellow grain were inspected for export over the past week, which is much higher than market expectations which were counting on 350,000 to 900,000 tonnes.
Export inspections of U.S. wheat and soybeans fell short of expectations. (Additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Mei Mei Chu in Beijing; Editing by Alex Richardson and Marguerita Choy)
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