Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher early on Friday on bargain-buying, snapping a six-session slide that pushed most months to contract lows this week, traders said. corn futures higher in a bargain-buying bounce a day after hitting two-month lows, but weekly declines were the largest in more than three months, traders said.
The most-active March contract settled up 8-3/4 cents at $4.04-1/4 per bushel. However, for the week, the contract fell 15-1/4 cents per bushel or 3.6 percent, its biggest weekly decline since late August, a reflection of plentiful US and global wheat supplies.
K.C. March hard red winter wheat futures rose 5-3/4 cents on Friday to settled at $4.08-3/4 a bushel and MGEX March spring wheat ended up 1/4 cent at $5.38-3/4. CBOT December wheat deliveries totalled 591 contracts, with the Term house account stopping 112. The exchange also reported 410 deliveries of K.C. December wheat. The MGEX reported seven December spring wheat deliveries.
Kazakhstan raised its forecast for grain exports this season to 9.0 million tonnes, from 8.5 million previously, its deputy agriculture minister said. Corn's rally was capped by hefty US and global grain supplies. The actively traded March contract settled up 4-3/4 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $3.47-1/4 a bushel after dipping to $3.41-3/4 on Thursday, the lowest level since Sept 30.
The contract's 3.1 percent weekly drop, its first in three weeks, was the largest since the week ended Aug 26. Corn drew some support from trade rumours that China may be willing to relax some import duties on US distillers dried grains, a byproduct of corn-ethanol production that is used as animal feed, analysts said. Regularly rising corn yields may overshadow a drop in US corn seedings in 2017, suggesting supplies are likely to remain abundant.