Corn Rises on Increased Exports, Ethanol Production; Wheat Gains
Source: By Jeff Wilson, Bloomberg • Posted: Friday, November 21, 2014
Corn, used to make livestock feed and a gasoline additive, dropped 5.7 percent in the previous four sessions. Export sales in the week ended Nov. 13 jumped 80 percent to 908,689 metric tons from a week earlier, and the number of chicks placed on feed last week rose 1.7 percent from a year earlier, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Production of ethanol rose to the second-highest ever, government figures showed yesterday.
“Exports are supportive as importers stepped in to acquire more bushels,” Shawn McCambridge, the senior grain analyst for Jefferies LLC said in a telephone interview from Chicago. “Ethanol production is increasing, and we are seeing a steady expansion in livestock feeding.”
On the Chicago Board of Trade, corn futures for delivery in March rose 2.7 percent to close at $3.8625 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. Earlier, the price touched $3.7525, the lowest for a most-active contract since Nov. 11.
Wheat futures for March delivery rose 2.1 percent to $5.525 a bushel, the biggest gain since Nov. 12.
McCambridge said that a Midwest freeze may reduce planting of the soft-red winter variety by 90,000 acres from the 8 million he expected a month earlier.
Soybean futures for January delivery advanced 1.6 percent to $10.205 a bushel, the biggest increase since Nov. 11. Delays persisted in shipping supplies to processors.
U.S. freight-train speeds last week were the slowest since 2009 for the period, while carloads of grain in the week ended Nov. 15 fell 3.9 percent from a year earlier, according to Association of American Railroads data.
While soybean output is forecast to rise to a record 3.958 billion bushels, inventories left from last year’s crop were the lowest since 1973, the USDA said this month.