Chicago wheat, corn, soybean retreat from previous rally

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodities futures closed all lower Wednesday after rallying the previous day, as funds cut their length position in grains sharply amid slow demand.

The most active corn contract for December delivery shed 7.25 cents, or 1.88 percent, to close at 3.7825 U.S. dollars per bushel. September wheat delivery lost 14.5 cents, or 2.84 percent, to end at 4.9625 dollars per bushel. November soybeans dropped 1.5 cents, or 0.16 percent, to close at 9.4325 dollars per bushel.

Chicago wheat and corn came under pressure from weak world export demand, the advancing global wheat harvest and improving weather forecast in the U.S. Midwest, taking a big step back Wednesday from rallying a day earlier.

Soybean futures also fell slightly with finding some support from short covering ahead of the soon to be deliverable August futures.

The weekly ethanol production report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday showed a slight drop in ethanol output, which was seen as neutral to slightly bearish to corn futures.

U.S. ethanol production through the week ending July 24 was down 0.08 percent from the prior week, to 965,000 barrels per day, which used an estimated 99 million bushels of corn, below the weekly average needed to reach the 2014/15 USDA annual estimate. Enditem