Spot basis bids for corn fell at rail terminals on Friday due to abundant supplies on the marketplace and good movement along railroads, grain dealers said. Corn bids held steady at other interior processors and elevators. Soyabean bids also were steady around the interior.
Cash bids for both commodities rose at river locations due to cheaper barge freight that left dealers with more money to offer farmers for their grain. Farmer selling was light on Friday. Most growers were hoping that prices would rise in the coming weeks.
Grain dealers expected good country movement of wheat during the weekend as farmers deliver newly harvested wheat to processors and elevators, a northern Ohio dealer said. Some light sales were forecast of supplies that farmers did not have room to store.
Although the interior soyabean basis was mostly steady, bids rose by 5 cents per bushel in western Iowa.
The US Agriculture Department said on Friday morning that spring rains and flooding in the Midwest will trim America's corn crop by 20 million bushels and soyabeans by 100 million bushels. Shipping costs fell on Midwest rivers. Bids for barges fell 25 percentage points to 375 percent of tariff on the lower Ohio River.
On the Illinois River, barges were bid at 465 percent of tariff, down from 485 percent of tariff on Thursday. Barges were bid at 360 percent of tariff on the Mississippi River at St. Louis, a 15 percentage point drop from Thursday's bids.
At the Chicago Board of Trade, July corn futures rose 4-3/4 cents to $6.80 per bushel while the September contract gained 4-1/2 cents to $6.91 a bushel due to technical buying and short covering.
July soyabean futures rose 21 cents to $16.30-1/2 a bushel, a 1.3 percent gain, while the August contract rose 15 cents to $16.15-1/2 a bushel. Traders viewed the USDA report as bullish. CBOT July wheat rose 12-1/2 cents, a 1.6 percent gain, to $8.19 a bushel.