Corn futures closed higher to end the week following another Chinese old-crop purchase announcement.
China booked another 191,000 tonnes of old-crop corn in a private sale announced this morning. With three other sales announced earlier this week, the four-day total for China comes to 2.1 million tonnes. “I think we’ll continue to see corn exports ramp up and I think that’ll help support the corn prices,” said Jack Scoville, analyst at Price Futures Group, told Reuters. A weaker US dollar added to the upside. May corn gained 1 ½ cents to $6.34 ¼, and December gained 2 ¾ cents to $5.61 ¼.
Continuing uncertainty over the fate of the Black Sea Grain Initiative ahead of its Friday expiration offered support to wheat, as did the weaker greenback. May Chicago was up 11 ½ cents to $7.10 ½, May Kansas City jumped 16 cents to 48.35 ¾, and May Minneapolis added 11 ¾ cents to $8.60 ¾.
Soybean futures ended lower despite the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange lowering its Argentina soy production estimate by another 4 million tonnes to 25 million. Pressure came from the advancing harvest of a record-large crop in Brazil. May beans lost 15 cents to $14.76 ½, and November dropped 11 cents to $13.13 ½.
