CHICAGO, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) crop futures closed moderately lower in the trading week ending on April 12, under the pressure of bearish export sales and ample stockpiles.
The most active wheat contract for May delivery was down 3.25 cents, or 0.69 percent, to close at 4.645 dollars. May soybeans were down 3.75 cents, or 0.42 percent, to settle at 8.9525 dollar per bushel. May corn was down 1.5 cents, or 0.41 percent weekly, to settle at 3.61 dollars per bushel.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) this week released its monthly supply and demand report, indicating rising world wheat ending stocks for 2018/19 marketing year.
In its April report, the USDA estimated world wheat ending stocks at 275.61 million metric tons, higher than last month's 270.53 metric tons.
Meanwhile, the USDA raised its domestic wheat ending stocks to 29.58 million metric tons, from 28.72 million metric tons in its March projection.
Additional pressure came from the latest USDA crop progress report, which showed that 60 percent of U.S. winter wheat was rated good/excellent as of April 7, up from 56 percent seven days earlier and 30 percent one year ago.
On Wednesday and Thursday, a blizzard hit most parts of South Dakota and Nebraska, western Minnesota, and some other areas in the upper Midwest. The snow storms could damage some wheat crops in the plains, but the concern failed to push up overall CBOT wheat prices amid ample U.S. and global stockpiles.
As for CBOT soybeans, the USDA reported net soybean export sales of 270,400 metric tons in the period of March 29-April 4 for 2018/19 marketing year. The volume was down 86 percent from the previous week and 76 percent from the prior four-week average.
The lack of further news about the U.S.-China trade talks also made the oil seed experience a dull trading week, said market watchers, as two of the five sessions this week saw CBOT soybeans end flat.
Rain and melting snow in March had caused flooding that impacted many areas in the Midwest, with the farming states of Nebraska and Iowa hit hardest. Heavy snow with strong wind this week, may again disrupt field operations and lead to further delay of corn planting.
Some market watchers now speculate that late start to Midwest corn seeding may lead to more crop acres switching to soybeans.
Although the U.S. corn export sales of 548,000 metric tons between March 29 and April 4 for 2018/19 were up 2 percent from the previous week, but still down 18 percent from the prior four-week average.
With the USDA raising corn production in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, U.S. corn will probably face fierce export competition later this year, said market analysts.
