Chicago agricultural commodities rise slightly

Prices of Chicago agricultural commodity futures all rose Friday, though the rising ranges were small. The most active corn contract for March delivery rose 2.5 cents, or 0.36 percent, to close at 6.94 dollars per bushel. March wheat gained 6.5 cents, or 0.84 percent, to settle at 7.7875 dollars per bushel. March soybeans added 4 cents, or 0.28 percent, to close at 14.18 dollars per bushel. March corn traded steady in thin volume ahead of the New Year's Day holiday. Meanwhile, corn market gained little strength from bearish export sales, which stood at only 104,300 tonnes for the current marketing year as of Dec. 20. March wheat traded higher on a stronger U.S. dollar, though also in thin volume ahead of the New Year's Day holiday. Another supportive factor for wheat came from the newly released export sales report, which put net weekly export sales at 1.009 million tonnes this week, the highest weekly sales since the 2010-2011 crop year. Currently, U.S. wheat is the cheapest in the world, and experts expect that the strong wheat export demand in the U.S. will continue into the first quarter of 2013. Soybean traded slightly higher Friday as traders were busy adjusting their positions in the wake of the price drops earlier this week. Positive export data also lent support to soybean, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that the country's private exporters sold 30,000 tonnes of soybean oil to an unknown destination and 165,000 tonnes of soybeans to China.