Corn falls, set for weekly loss on ethanol proposal

December 13th, 2013

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

(Reuters) – U.S. corn futures fell for a second consecutive session on Friday, with the grain poised to report a weekly loss, as a proposal to abolish the ethanol mandate continued to weigh.

FUNDAMENTALS

Chicago Board Of Trade March corn down slightly for the week, having posed weekly gains of 2.3 percent last week.

January soybeans down 0.4 percent for the week, the second consecutive weekly loss.

March wheat down 2.6 percent for the week, extending two-week losses to more than 5 percent.

A group of 10 U.S. Senators introduced a bipartisan bill on Thursday to eliminate the corn ethanol mandate, arguing that current law pushes up the cost of food and animal feed and damages the environment.

China on Wednesday blocked the entry of another U.S. corn cargo, and three more may be turned away after tests found a strain of unapproved GMO corn.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its weekly export sales report on Thursday, said U.S. corn export sales last week within the range of estimates but soybean sales were well above estimates.

MARKET NEWS

The U.S. dollar rose in Asia on Friday, having made a solid comeback overnight on upbeat retail sales data while the Australian dollar took a battering following more jawboning from the country’s central bank chief.

Brent oil futures tumbled by more than $1 on Thursday as traders anticipated an increase in Libyan oil supply and expectations grew that the U.S. Federal Reserve would soon start to unwind its stimulus program, which has supported commodity prices.

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday as retail sales rose solidly in November, adding to signs the economy is strong enough for the Federal Reserve to begin reducing the pace of monetary stimulus.

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