Chicago agricultural commodities dropped across the board Thursday on downbeat export data and stronger U.S. dollar.
The most active corn contract for December delivery fell 1.25 cents, or 0.33 percent, to close at 3.74 dollars per bushel. December wheat dropped 2.25 cents, or 0.41 percent, to close at 5. 36 dollars per bushel. January soybean fell 19.25 cents, or 1.84 percent, to close at 10.2975 dollars per bushel.
Soybean fell sharply Thursday as the transportation bottleneck will soon be solved. Soymeal end users are having difficulty sourcing spot soymeal needs via rail this week, leading to a wave of panic buying. But analysts said the issue should be solved soon when end users switch to using trucks for transportation.
Corn fell from the highest price since August as demand dropped for shipments from the United States, the world's largest exporter, and an industry group raised its global production forecast.
The dollar on Thursday climbed to its highest level in more than three weeks against a basket of currencies, after a better- than-expected U.S. growth report and a Federal Reserve decision to close its bond-buying program. The strong greenback has pushed higher the export price of U.S. grains, weakening its competitive edge.
Through the week ending last Thursday, U.S. exporters sold a net 19 Million Bushel of corn, 49 Million Bushel of soybeans, 11 Million Bushel of wheat and 147,800 tons of soymeal, mostly to Mexico. Soybean and wheat demand was in line with trade expectations, while corn was well below market estimate and posted its lowest sales figure of the marketing year to date.