CHICAGO, Jan 27 (Reuters) – U.S. soybean futures weakened on Friday on expectations that recent rains in Argentina boosted crop potential from that major exporter. of South America, traders said.
Wheat futures were weaker on a loss of earnings after three straight days of gains while wheat futures rose further on hopes of greater demand.
All three commodities were poised to post weekly gains, and traders expected moves to be minimal as investors squared off positions ahead of the weekend.
“We’re just looking at the end of the week consolidation pattern,” said Tom Fritz, commodities broker at EFG Group. “I don’t think anything has changed.”
At 11:16 am CST (1716 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade March soybean futures fell 11-1/4 cents to $15.12-1/2 a bushel.
Recent rains have brought much-needed relief to much of Argentina’s dry farmland, the Buenos Aires Grains exchange said Thursday, with the coming rains expected to continue to help farmers in the planting stage among historic drought.
CBOT March corn was up 1/2 cent at $6.83 a bushel and CBOT March wheat was 3-1/2 cents lower at $7.49 a bushel.
For the week, wheat and corn futures both rose 1.0% while soybean futures rose 0.4%. (Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Uttaresh.V, Krishna Chandra Eluri and Josie Kao)
