Grain, Soybean Futures Turn Higher

Grain and soybean futures rose, reversing course after early losses.

A higher dollar, which makes U.S. agricultural exports more expensive, initially pressured those markets. The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.45% to 86.50.

Analysts said prices turned higher, however, after money began to flow into the commodity sector and traders unwound pessimistic positions in the grain and oilseed sector.

Soybean prices also got a boost after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said private exporters reported sales of 132,000 metric tons of soybeans to China for 2017-18.

Analysts expect to see some of the recent robust export demand for U.S. oilseed reflected in the USDA's weekly export sales report on Thursday morning. Demand from China was otherwise likely to wane ahead of a public holiday next week, they said.

"No one wants to stick around on Friday or Saturday cleaning up paperwork on a vessel they booked this week with a week-long holiday looming overhead," said Charlie Sernatinger, head of grain trading at ED&F Man Capital.

More generally, soybean traders were "looking at 'perfect storm' of bear news," said Richard Feltes of brokerage R.J. O'Brien, with clear U.S. harvest weather, better-than-expected soybean yields and rains in Brazil next week all contributing.

Soybean oil prices were also under pressure after the Environmental Protection Agency said it would revisit biodiesel mandates for 2018 and 2019, making possible a reduction that would dampen demand.

November soybean futures rose 0.2% to $9.65 1/2 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade. December corn futures rose 0.5% to $3.54 a bushel while December wheat climbed 1.7% to $4.61 1/2 a bushel.

Write to Benjamin Parkin at benjamin.parkin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 27, 2017 16:13 ET (20:13 GMT)