CHICAGO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures settled mixed for the trading week ending March 6, with corn futures rising over 2 percent as investors turned to technical buying on rising U.S. ethanol production.

The most active soybean contract for May delivery decreased 1.5 cents, or 0.17 percent week on week, to close at 8.9125 U.S. dollars per bushel. May corn added 7.75 cents, or 2.1 percent, to settle at 3.76 dollars per bushel. May wheat slid 9.25 cents, or 1.76 percent, to end at 5.1575 dollars per bushel.

Ethanol production last week jumped to the highest in a month while stockpiles were up slightly, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Output in the seven days that ended on Feb. 28 averaged 1.079 million barrels a day, the EIA said in a report. That was up from 1.054 million barrels a week earlier and the highest level since Jan. 31.

In the U.S. Midwest, by far the biggest-producing region, output of the biofuel jumped to 1.007 million barrels, on average, from 977,000 a week earlier, the agency said.

Gulf Coast production increased to 24,000 barrels a day, on average, from 22,000 barrels seven days earlier. Rocky Mountain output was unchanged at an average of 14,000 barrels a day.

West Coast production declined to 14,000 barrels a day from 15,000 barrels, and East Coast output plunged to an average of 19,000 barrels a day from 26,000 barrels the previous week.

Stockpiles in the seven days that ended on Feb. 28 came in at 24.964 million barrels, up from 24.718 million a week earlier, the EIA said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Thursday released its weekly export sales report for the period of Feb. 21-27, showing weak export sales of corn and soybeans.

Net U.S. corn sales were reported at 769,200 metric tones for the 2019/20 marketing year, down 11 percent from the previous week and 29 percent from the prior four-week average.

Meanwhile, net soybean sales for 2019/20 were pegged at 345,000 metric tons, up 2 percent from the previous week, but down 35 percent from the prior four-week average.

Only wheat sales during the same period were upbeat, reaching 542,400 metric tons for the 2019/20 marketing year, up 42 percent from the previous week and 27 percent from the prior four-week average.

The impacts of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak on crop trade have also added pressure on CBOT futures, said market watchers.

CBOT brokers estimated that funds on Friday sold 3,500 contracts of soybeans, 7,100 contracts of corn, and 6,200 contracts of wheat. Enditem

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