By Michael Hirtzer
CHICAGO, Jan 14 (Reuters) – U.S. corn fell 1 percent on
Wednesday, extending declines from the past two sessions to the
largest in 1-1/2 years on pressure from chart-based selling and
ballooning supplies of grain-based ethanol.
Wheat had its sixth straight down day, pulled lower by
plentiful global supplies of wheat and corn. Soybeans reversed
from an earlier six-week low to turn higher on support from
exporter demand for U.S. supplies despite looming record South
American soy harvests.
Chicago Board of Trade corn deepened losses after the U.S.
Energy Information Administration said ethanol stockpiles jumped
more than 1 million barrels in a week to the largest supplies in
about two years.
“The corn market made its lows on the ethanol numbers,” said
Roy Huckabay, analyst at brokerage the Linn Group. “But it’s
technical more than anything else.”
CBOT March corn finished 3-3/4 cents lower at $3.81
per bushel, trimming losses after finding downside resistance at
its 100-day moving average.
Huckabay added that the lowest corn futures in nearly two
months sparked demand for the animal feed from domestic hog
producers. Taiwan and South Korea have also purchased U.S. corn
within the last 24 hours.
CBOT March wheat eased 10-1/4 cents to $5.37-3/4 per
bushel, about a seven week low. Soybeans for March delivery
were up 4-1/2 cents to $10.14-1/2 while the January
contract expired at noon up 5-1/4 cents at $10.09-1/4.
Some investors also were moving capital from grains and
oilseeds back into energies such as crude oil on ideas
that the slump in oil to a six-year low was nearing a bottom.
“Fundamentals are pretty well known, it is funds that are
reducing their exposure to agricultural commodities. It is
purely money-flow driven,” said Ole Houe, analyst at brokerage
IKON Commodities.
(Additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen
Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Michael Urquhart, James
Dalgleish and Diane Craft)