U.S. agricultural futures close mixed

CHICAGO, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures closed mixed on Friday, with corn and wheat falling and soybean rising.

The most active corn contract for December delivery fell 2.5 cents, or 0.51 percent, to settle at 4.8375 U.S. dollars per bushel. December wheat lost 4 cents, or 0.67 percent, to settle at 5.9575 dollars per bushel. November soybean rose 3.5 cents, or 0.26 percent, to settle at 13.63 dollars per bushel.

Choppiness is the feature of the market. CBOT volume remains horribly low as few traders want to add to risk profile ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Crop Report due out Tuesday.

World crop production is declining, but traders want to get past the USDA September report before making any new bull bets. Argentine farm sales of soybeans on the dollar-soybean program have been slower than expected at 500,000 metric tons. With Brazilian farmers cutting first and second crop corn seeding intentions, Chicago-based research company AgResource holds that CBOT risk appears to be to the upside.

Stats Canada estimated July 31 all wheat stocks at 3.58 million metric tons, 1.5 million metric tons of canola and 1.27 million metric tons of oats. Canada is exporting 300,000 metric tons to 500,000 metric tons of new crop wheat weekly.

U.S. weekly export sales for the week ending Sept. 1 were 13.6 million bushels of wheat, 37.4 million bushels of corn and 65.5 million bushels of soybeans. For respective crop years to date, the United States has sold 289 million bushels of wheat, down 17 percent year on year; 410 million bushels of corn, down 11 percent; and 586 million bushels of soybeans, down 34 percent.

Another 10 days of below normal rainfall with seasonal temperatures are forecast for the Midwest and the Delta. Rain is slated to drop across the Southern and Central Plains early next week. The rain comes too late to aid corn and soybean yield prospects, but will aid hard red winter wheat seeding.