Chicago agricultural commodity futures traded mixed on Tuesday, with corn and soybeans prices down and wheat prices up.
The most active corn contract for March delivery fell 1.5 cents, or 0.35 percent, to settle at 4.22 dollars per bushel. March wheat rose 4.75 cents, or 0.79 percent, to settle at 6.0525 dollars per bushel. January soybeans fell 16.25 cents, or 1.24 percent, to close at 12.925 dollars per bushel.
Corn futures plunged 39 percent in 2013, as the U.S. harvest rose to a record, recovering from the prior season when crops were hurt by the worst drought since the 1930s. The U.S. corn output, which is the world's biggest, will total 355.3 million metric tons, up 30 percent from the previous year, U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.
Soybean futures for March delivery fell 1.24 percent, leaving prices poised for an 8 percent drop this year, while wheat fell 23 percent in 2013, the biggest dip since 2008.
Farmers worldwide are producing record amounts of commodities from soybeans to wheat, leaving food costs tracked by the United Nations 13 percent below an all-time high reached in 2011 and spurring some banks to predict further declines in crop prices in 2014, according to Bloomberg.
