CHICAGO, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) grains futures closed mixed over the trade week which ended March 16, with the wheat prices plunging more than 4 percent due to poor export sales and rainfall in the U.S. plains.
The most active corn contract for May delivery fell 7.75 cents weekly, or 1.98 percent, to 3.8275 dollars per bushel. May wheat delivery lost 21.5 cents weekly, or 4.39 percent, to 4.6775 dollars per bushel. May soybeans rose 10.25 cents weekly, or 0.99 percent, to 10.495 dollars per bushel.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its latest weekly export data on Thursday. For the period March 2-8, U.S. exporters reported sales of 162,800 metric tons of wheat for delivery in marketing year 2017/2018. The sales were down 58 percent from the previous week and 47 percent from the prior four-week average.
The poor export performance prompted sharp fall of CBOT wheat prices.
More pressure came on Friday from rainfall in central U.S. plains, which is expected to ease the dryness in the wheat growing areas. Meanwhile, precipitation across Europe, especially the Black Sea region and Russia are building prospects for larger wheat crops, said market analysts.
May corn fell about 2 percent, which is the biggest weekly loss since January. Argentina's drought has been mostly digested, and focus is now shifting to the northern hemisphere, where weather outside of the U.S. southern and western plains has been largely favorable.
Consolidation for corn prices is expected over the next two weeks, with U.S. export demand is accelerating, rather than slowing, said analysts with AgResource company.
CBOT soybeans traded up and down through the week and were higher at Friday's close. Traders were trying hard to assess if the rainfall over Argentina is too late or too little for the crops there.
On Thursday, Buenos Aires Grain Exchange released their estimate that Argentina soybean yield could decrease to 40 million metric tons from the previous 46 million metric tons, though rain started to fall in the drought-hit areas earlier this week, with another round of precipitation this weekend.
Additional support came from upbeat data of U.S. soybean export sales, which underpinned the CBOT soybean futures. USDA reported weekly sales of 1,269,600 metric tons of soybeans for 2017/2018 delivery, 30 percent up from the prior 4-week average.
The U.S. has picked up a significant amount of export business in the last several weeks, and current sales and shipments are now starting to align with the USDA's export forecast.
However, traders are still concerned about the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, which they fear may bring retaliation from other countries and in that case, U.S. agricultural commodities can be the target.
