US corn futures sagged on Thursday on technical selling and concerns that the US government might soon lower its requirement on the amount of corn-based ethanol blended into fuel for 2014, traders said. Wheat pared gains after top global buyer Egypt said it bought wheat from France and Romania in a tender, and soyabeans fell in light, choppy trading.
At the Chicago Board of Trade as of 12:13 pm CST (1813 GMT), December corn was down 3 cents at $4.26-3/4 a bushel. December wheat was up 1/2 cent at $6.46 a bushel and January soyabeans were down 1 cent at $13.14 a bushel. Documents leaked earlier this year indicated the US Environmental Protection Agency might cut its corn-based ethanol requirement to 13 billion gallons versus the 14.4 billion target in a 2007 law.
The US Energy Information Administration reported US ethanol production in the latest week at 927,000 barrels per day, up 25,000 from the previous week, a reflection of strong margins for producers, traders said. The CBOT December contract has fallen in subdued trading since hitting a two-week high of $4.38 on Tuesday, buoyed by a lower-than-expected forecast of US corn ending stocks that was released last week by the US Department of Agriculture.
Wheat turned mixed after Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) bought 240,000 tonnes of Romanian and French wheat for shipment December 1-15 in an international tender. Egypt is the world's biggest wheat importer, and the purchase was its biggest since August 31. In Paris, January wheat rose 0.98 percent to settle at 205.25 euros a tonne, off its session high of 206.25.
CBOT soyabeans fell in choppy trading, setting back after the January contract set a six-week high at $13.21-1/2 a bushel on the back of recent sales of US soyabeans to China. Traders noted technical resistance above $13.20, preventing the market from rising higher.
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