CHICAGO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodity futures closed lower across the board for the second consecutive day, amid massive fund selling in response to declined export inspections.
CBOT brokers estimated that funds on Tuesday sold 4,900 contracts of wheat, 7,200 contracts of corn and 3,000 contracts of soybeans.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), inspections of corn, soybeans and wheat for overseas delivery all declined in the seven days that ended on Jan. 24.
USDA data showed that wheat export inspections fell sharply from 524,942 metric tons in the previous week to 362,153 metric tons, triggering a plunge in CBOT wheat futures.
Private exporters reported optional origin sales of 138,000 metric tons of corn for delivery to South Korea during the 2018/2019 marketing year. Such an optional origin contract provides that the origin of the commodity may be the United States or one or more other exporting countries. The news failed to push up CBOT corn prices.
U.S. soybeans also fell along with other grains.
At the end of the session, the most active March soybeans were down 4.25 cents, or 0.46 percent, to settle at 9.19 dollars per bushel. March corn was down 2.5 cents, or 0.66 percent, to settle at 3.7725 dollars per bushel. March wheat was down 5.5 cents, or 1.06 percent, to close at 5.1325 dollars per bushel.
