US wheat futures closed slightly lower on Friday, their first drop after five winning sessions, as traders said they needed a new fundamental reason to push prices higher after gains this week. Prices rose 7.4 percent during the streak, mostly due to end-of-year short-covering.
For the week, CBOT wheat rose 6.5 percent. Volume was light on Friday, with the amount of contracts traded the smallest of the year. Dry conditions were expected in the US Plains during the next week following a blizzard that dumped as much as 15 inches of snow in key hard red winter wheat-growing areas this week. Temperatures were seen warming to as high as 60 degrees Fahrenheit next week.
Commerzbank said it expects CBOT wheat to average $6.70 a bushel in 2012. Exporters sell 120,000 tonnes of US hard red winter wheat to Nigeria for 2011/12 delivery - US Agriculture Department. Morocco said it has a record level of year-end grain stocks even after skipping international purchases for several months.
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures rose for the sixth straight session on worries that dry weather in South America will hurt crop production, traders said. For the week, CBOT corn rose 6.4 percent, its biggest weekly gain in more than two months. CBOT volume was extremely light, with less than 100,000 contracts trading in pre-holiday trade.
Light rain expected in southern Brazil but longer-range forecast for more dry weather. Commerzbank said it expects CBOT corn to average $6.90 a bushel in 2012. The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said that early seeded corn in Argentina already has seen potential yields fall due to dryness in key growing areas. US soyabean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade ended firm in thin, pre-holiday trade, extending their rally to seven days amid short-covering and worries about South American crop weather, traders said.