Commodities Monday, March 9, 1987 : Grain, Soybean Futures Rise

Most grain and soybean futures prices moved higher Monday, with wheat benefiting from some concern about potential weather damage to the emerging crop.

On other markets, livestock and meats were mostly higher, while precious metals and energy futures were a little lower.

The nearby wheat delivery at the Chicago Board of Trade rallied from a 4 1/2-cent deficit to close higher.

Unseasonably warm tempteratures over much of the midcontinent awakened the winter wheat crop a little early, said Joel Karlin, an analyst in Chicago with Jack Carl Associates. The sprouts could be damaged if temperatures turn cold enough.

“We had a 60 degree difference (after the weather turned colder on Sunday) in some of the Plains states,” Karlin said. “We’ll find out in a day or two if there was any damage.”

Corn and soybean futures were helped by a lack of country movement. “Farmers are expecting higher prices, so they’re tending to hold on to their crops,” said Karlin.

Also, he said, there are rumors of “quite a bit of export business” going on now or coming up shortly. Some of the late buying in corn futures was by speculators evening their positions.