CHICAGO, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures fell across the board on Thursday, led by wheat.
The most active corn contract for July delivery fell 2.25 cents, or 0.36 percent, to settle at 6.255 U.S. dollars per bushel. May wheat plunged 12.5 cents, or 1.84 percent, to settle at 6.67 dollars per bushel. May soybean lost 3.25 cents, or 0.22 percent, to settle at 15.01 dollars per bushel.
Wheat futures sagged on forecast of rain for Kansas and Nebraska next week. The competitive nature of the world wheat market will add to U.S. futures market volatility.
The CBOT is a market of two steps forward and one step back amid favorable seeding weather for Midwest corn and soybeans. Chicago-based research company AgResource warns against selling breaks.
U.S. export sales for the week ending April 6 were 5 million bushels of wheat, 20.8 million bushels of corn and 13.4 million bushels of soybeans. For respective crop years to date, the United States has sold 671.5 million bushels of wheat, down 5 percent year on year; 1,486 million bushels of corn, down 32 percent; and 1,847 million bushels of soybeans, down 11 percent. The weekly U.S. corn, soybean and wheat sales pace was lower than expected.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that China purchased 327,000 metric tons of U.S. corn in its daily sales reporting.
Argentine farmers are slow sellers of cash soybeans under the Soybean Dollar program that started on Monday.
CONAB estimated the 2023 Brazilian soybean crop at 153.6 million metric tons and corn crop at 124.9 million metric tons.
Rain is forecast across the Lake States, while the Southern and Central Plains are left with a deepening drought. Temperatures are cool next week with limited precipitation for the hard red winter (HRW) wheat belt in Central and Southern Plains. ■
