CHICAGO, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures closed mixed on Thursday, with corn and soybean rising and wheat falling.
The most active corn contract for December delivery rose 3.75 cents, or 0.61 percent, to settle at 6.1575 U.S. dollars per bushel. December wheat fell 31.5 cents, or 4.04 percent, to settle at 7.49 dollars per bushel. November soybean gained 15.25 cents, or 1.1 percent, to settle at 14.0525 dollars per bushel.
Global wheat futures were down sharply amid a flood of negative headlines suggesting that a meeting between UN, Turkish and Ukrainian officials would aim to boost diplomacy with Russia, which sparked early heavy selling in wheat. Geopolitics will continue to dominate wheat price discovery until the market can better parse global grain trade flows.
Wheat market will be driven near exclusively by Black Sea headlines over the next 30 days, with physical grain flows and cash market to more directly determine fair value thereafter. Chicago-based research company AgResource holds that corn and soybean will stay range-bound, and current values are not overpriced amid lofty end user margins.
Combined old and new crop corn export sales through the week ending Aug. 11 totaled 33 million bushels, as against 15 million bushels in the prior week, the largest since mid-June. Combined soybean sales totaled 51 million bushels, as against 15 million bushels in the previous week, the largest since mid-April. U.S. wheat sales were a disappointing 8 million bushels, as against 13 million bushels in the prior week.
China secured 29 million bushels of new crop soybeans, and its 2022-2023 total U.S. soybean commitments, including outstanding old crop sales, sit at 776 million bushels, as against 525 million bushels a year ago.
A pattern of inundating rainfall will be in place through the weekend across the far Southern Plains and Southeast. Drought in Central and Eastern Texas will be eased considerably. Warm to normal and above normal temperatures by early next week will resume across Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Western Iowa.
