CHICAGO, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) crop futures traded mixed in the trading week ending on March 22, with corn rising sharply over flood concerns and data.
The most active corn for May delivery was up 5 cents, or 1.34 percent weekly, to settle at 3.7825 U.S. dollars per bushel. May wheat was up 3.75 cents, or 0.81 percent, to close at 4.66 dollars. March soybeans were down 5.5 cents, or 0.6 percent, to settle at 9.0375 dollar per bushel.
Heavy rain and rapidly melting snow have caused flooding that impacted many areas in the U.S. Midwest, with the farming states of Nebraska and Iowa hitting hardest.
On Thursday, U.S. President of Donald Trump declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Nebraska and ordered federal aid to supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts.
CBOT corn rose more than 1 percent on the same day amid additional concerns that flooding could also delay corn planting.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed on Friday sales by private exporters of 300,000 metric tons of corn for delivery to China during the 2018/19 marketing year, which began on Sept. 1.
Traders anticipate that China will purchase more U.S. agricultural products, including corn, as part of a trade deal being negotiated by the two countries.
As for CBOT wheat, an agreement with Brazil, along with possible damage from the flooding, boosted the grain notably this week.
U.S. President Donald Trump and visiting Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday made a number of trade-related commitments. One of them is that Brazil will import every year 750,000 metric tons of U.S. wheat free of duty.
The trade deal pushed up CBOT wheat futures as it will offer new export opportunity for U.S. wheat, as foreign wheat usually faces a 10-percent duty in Brazil unless it's grown in fellow Mercosur countries.
Flooding also damaged some soft red wheat in the southern Midwest and Mississippi Delta, said market watchers, helped support CBOT wheat prices.
CBOT soybeans saw a relatively quiet trading week and the market now awaits a report on prospective plantings and quarterly grain stocks on Friday.
The market is positioned for record large soybean stocks and a decline in 2019 soybean planting intentions, according to the Chicago-based agricultural research firm AgResource.
