Grains Up in Thin Trading

Grain and soybean futures prices advanced in thin, post-holiday trading Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Livestock and meat futures were mixed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The other major futures markets were closed because of the extended Christmas holiday.

The light activity and a sparsity of sellers magnified price movements on the Board of Trade.

Corn futures were helped by a report that China bought 210,000 tons of U.S. corn, said Dale Gustafson, an analyst in Chicago with Drexel Burnham Lambert. In addition, China took 60,000 tons of soybeans.

“The total volumes of beans and corn (reported this week for export) were rather good,” he said.

“China has probably taken a little more corn from the United States (and other exporters) recently,” he said, “but I don’t think it means a whole lot” with regard to any radical shift in the export picture.

There was very little activity in the wheat futures market.

But some commercial and commission house buying of soybeans and soy oil helped those markets, Gustafson said.