Soybean prices fall on rising China inflation

DENVER, Mar 14 (AP): Soybean prices fell Thursday on concerns about waning demand in China and news of canceled US exports of soybeans last week.

Wheat and corn prices also edged lower, but fared far better than soybeans because neither is exported to China, said analyst Vic Lespinasse of grainanalyst.com.

The 2.7 per cent increase in China's consumer prices last month was driven by a 6 per cent jump in food costs, which is a key worry in a country where poor families spend up to 40 per cent of their incomes on food.

China is a significant buyer of US soybeans, so the inflationary report raised fears that the country may impose a fresh round of restrictions on credit, the analyst said.

In addition, the US Agriculture Department reported that sales of 115,000 metric tons of soybeans were canceled in the past week.

Soybeans for May delivery fell 27.5 cents to settle at $9.305 a bushel. Wheat for May delivery fell 2.75 cents to $4.7875 a bushel while May corn fell 0.25 cents to $3.6525 a bushel.

Other commodities were mixed.

April gold rose 10 cents to settle at $1,108.20 an ounce.

In May contracts, silver for May delivery rose 14.2 cents to settle at $17.160 an ounce and copper rose 0.9 cents to $3.377 a pound.

Platinum for April delivery rose $22.50 to $1,612.70 while palladium fell $3.60 to settle at $460.15 an ounce.

Benchmark crude for April delivery rose 2 cents to settle at $82.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other Nymex trading, April contracts for natural gas lost 11.5 cents to settle at 4.444 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil was virtually unchanged, settling at $2.115 a gallon, and gasoline dropped 1.31 cents to end the trading session at $2.272 a gallon.