CHICAGO, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures closed mixed on Thursday, with corn and soybean rising and wheat dropping.
The most active corn contract for July delivery rose 5.75 cents, or 0.74 percent, to settle at 7.8375 U.S. dollars per bushel. July wheat dropped 16.75 cents, or 1.49 percent, to settle at 11.045 dollars per bushel. July soybean climbed 0.25 cents, or 0.02 percent, to settle at 16.6525 dollars per bushel.
Day-to-day price action moving forward will be a function of central U.S. weather outlooks and the extent that South American exporters can begin trimming the U.S. share of global feed trade. Choppier markets are expected as the new North Hemisphere growing season begins. But Russia-Ukraine conflict and broad inflationary trends remain top priorities in long-term fair value. Breaks will be brief and shallow until there are signs of demand rationing.
Chicago-based research company AgResource holds that the long-term outlook of agricultural futures remains bullish as the market's chore of replacing August-December Black Sea grain exports will be impossible.
The CBOT will be closed on Friday for the Easter Holiday weekend.
U.S. export sales through the week ending April 7 were 51 million bushels of corn, as against 31 million bushels in the previous week; 20 million bushels of soybeans, as against 29 million bushels in the prior week. World demand for soybean will be split between the United States and Brazil in the May-July period.
AgResource noted that Canada as of April 7 had secured a record 143 million bushels of U.S. corn, as against 24 million bushels a year ago and accounting for 96 percent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual Canadian import projection.
High odds are that needed rainfall will reach into Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado on April 23-25. Warmer temperatures are forecast to blanket central United States in the 8-15 day period. Warmer temperatures and a western expansion of rainfall are probable in the final week of April.