Chicago grains edge lower on profit taking

Chicago agricultural products edged lower on Tuesday, as profit-taking dominated the market before the release of key data of grain supply and demand for the United States and the rest of the world. Soybean even lost the most in more than a week.

The most active corn contract for March delivery closed unchanged at 6.07 dollars per bushel. March wheat futures lost 7. 75 cents, or one percent, to 7.595 dollars a bushel. March soybean dropped 23.5 cents, or 1.7 percent, to 13.57 dollars per bushel.

Market traders noted that corn futures were firmer throughout the morning, but slipped amid profit-taking to finish narrowly mixed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is scheduled to publish the fresh data on grain supply and demand for the United States and the rest of the world on Wednesday.

While traders expected that the USDA would reduce its estimates for domestic and global corn inventories before the 2011 harvest, they opted to take profit on Tuesday, said a market analyst.

Tuesday's soybean suffered the largest drop since Jan. 3, as market expected that rains would relieve dry and hot weather in Argentina and boost yields in Brazil.

Parts of Argentina will get 0.2 inches (0.5 centimeters) to one inch of rain from two storms in the next five days, with a third bringing as much as two inches to most of the growing region on Jan. 19, and much of Brazil will also have favorable conditions for the next two weeks, according to World Weather Inc.

Source: Xinhua

The extremely hot temperature and dry weather in South America earlier triggered wide concerns over the crop growth there and pushed the prices of corn and soybean to their 29-month highs in December 2010.

On the wheat market, traders noted that wheat prices were firmer for much of the morning on support from fresh demand news and weather concerns. However, by the afternoon, wheat traders turned their focus away from fundamentals and took profits ahead of the USDA's report.

Besides, France, the world's second-largest wheat exporter, said it has no plans to restrict shipments, which also helped to pressure the market.