Chicago Board of Trade grain futures were sharply lower on Tuesday, with corn and wheat leading an early slide following a widespread sell-off in commodity prices, including crude oil, traders said. In addition, a firm US dollar and rains in Argentina weighed heavily on soyabeans.
CBOT trends at 11:15 am CST (1715 GMT) on Tuesday: March wheat down 1 cents at $8.34-1/4 per bushel. Profit-taking seen after wheat rose to a 5-1/2 month high and nearly a 2-1/2 year high on big exports of US wheat. Unconfirmed talk that China may have bought more feed wheat from Australia lends light underlying support. Algeria issued a tender for 50,000 tonnes of wheat, the third such tender this month. March corn down 10-1/4 cent at $6.45 per bushel. March soyabeans down 19 cents at $13.85-1/2 per bushel.