Chicago grains tumble on economic concerns

CHICAGO, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chicago grains suffered collective weakness in its three major products on Wednesday, as the market investors feared that the global economic slowdown would threaten demands, coupled with pressure resultant from the strengthened U.S. dollar.

The most active corn contract for December delivery closed at 6. 8575 U.S. dollars per bushel, down 4.5 U.S cents, or 0.65 percent. December wheat lost eight cents, or 1.2 percent, to 6.6675 dollars per bushel. November soybean declined 17.5 cents, or 1.3 percent, to 13.205 dollars per bushel.

Market analysts said that the world's economy would continue to struggle and there is concern that the economy will slip back into recession, which would slow down demand for commodities.

U.S. Federal Reserve said there are "significant downside risks" to the economic outlook and announced a plan later Wednesday to swap shorter-maturity government bonds for longer- term ones to boost economy.

Meanwhile, the strong rebound in U.S. dollar exerted additional pressure on the agricultural market. The Dollar Index, which measures the value of dollar against six other currencies, on Wednesday hiked more than one percent to reach 77.8.

Also, the corn price was further weighed on by slowed demands, as U.S. ethanol production for the week ending Sept.16 amounted to 871,000 barrels per day on average, which is 0.91 percent lower than last week. The total ethanol production for the week was 6. 097 million barrels which is the lowest weekly total since May 6.

Soybeans also came under heavy selling pressure late in the day and settled at the lowest level since Aug. 11, as investors expected that U.S. export will remain slow due to high supply in South America and U.S. producer selling will go up as a result of increased harvesting activities.