CHICAGO, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures closed lower in the trading week ending on Dec. 28, with soybeans falling slightly despite traders anticipated China will buy more from U.S. inventories.
The most active contract for March soybeans were down 2.25 cents weekly, or 0.25 percent, to 8.995 dollars per bushel. March wheat fell 2.5 cents, or 0.49 percent, to 5.115 dollars per bushel. March corn went down 3 cents, or 0.79 percent, to 3.755 dollars per bushel.
Traders were missing details on daily U.S. grain export sales, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) did not report during the federal government's partial shutdown.
Still, traders seemed optimistic that China and other customers were making purchases that were not being reported, as evidenced by the price increase.
According to USDA, China purchased more than 2.7 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in the past couple of weeks.
CBOT corn futures ended a bit weaker amid a lack of fresh news, rising exports from Brazil and extreme macro and political volatility.
Bio-fuel margins continued to act as a weight, with spot crude this week hitting new multi-year lows.
Planting progress in Argentina was not affected by excessive rains during December. And funds in recent weeks established a decently sized net long position.
Wheat futures settled lower. The world cash market has taken a seasonal hiatus with activity not to resume in full until early January. As such, world cash market transparency has been lacking, and the U.S. government shutdown keeps U.S. export news absent entirely.
