US wheat futures climbed modestly on Friday, rebounding from a near two-month low as flooding threatened wheat in the US Midwest and dry conditions stressed the crop in the southern US Plains. US soyabean futures fell and corn futures were choppy after crude oil futures turned lower.
"There was pretty good trade the first 15 minutes, then it started to flop around and now it's pretty dead. It's Friday and a lot of them headed for the bank and for the weekend," said a trader from the floor at the Chicago Board of Trade. CBOT July wheat was up 2 cents at $7.37-1/2 per bushel while July corn rose 3 cents to $6.83-1/2 per bushel after briefly turning lower.
July soyabeans fell 8 cents to $13.34-3/4 but was still poised for its biggest weekly rise in four weeks. Don Roose, analyst at US Commodities in Iowa, said planting delays in corn and adverse weather conditions in wheat were supportive but a recent slowdown in demand tempered buying.
"We're still at lofty (price) levels and we are getting the crop in the ground, and the ethanol production and export sales were a drag You have to be cautious," Roose said The US Agriculture Department early on Friday said exporters sold 271,000 tonnes of corn to an unknown buyer for delivery during the 2011/12 marketing year.
Some traders speculated the buyer was China, which was said to be interested in purchasing corn from the United States or elsewhere. Meanwhile, flooding along the Mississippi River has threatened about 3 million acres of US farmland and showers in the coming days in the US Midwest could again slow corn plantings which already are well behind schedule. WeatherBill, a weather insurance firm, estimated that 834 million to 1.6 billion bushels of corn may be lost due to heavy rains and planting delays so far in the eastern Corn Belt.
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