CHICAGO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures closed mixed on Monday, with corn rising and wheat and soybean falling.

The most active corn contract for July delivery rose 6.25 cents, or 0.93 percent, to settle at 6.795 U.S. dollars per bushel. July wheat plunged 16.75 cents, or 2.28 percent, to settle at 7.18 dollars per bushel. July soybean lost 10.25 cents, or 0.67 percent, to close at 15.24 dollars per bushel.

Fund managers pared their market risk amid rising margin and daily position limits. Much will depend on daily Central U.S. weather forecasts, Chicago-based research company AgResource noted.

AgResource holds that the CBOT is moving into a several-week period of "extreme choppiness" due to the coming U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Report due on May 12, and varied Midwest soil moisture and weather conditions. Some Midwest areas are extremely dry while others are well watered.

U.S. weekly export inspections for the week ending April 29 were 84.2 million bushels of corn, 5.3 million bushels of soybeans and 18.7 million bushels of wheat. For respective crop years to date, the United States has shipped out a record 1,707 million bushels of corn, up 83 percent; 2,038 million bushels of soybeans, up 64 percent; and 849.8 million bushels of wheat, equal to last year.

China was the big U.S. corn importer of 30.3 million bushels, with Mexico being the U.S. largest weekly soybean importer of 2.1 million bushels. China has been ramping up U.S. corn import pace which may cause WASDE to raise 2020-2021 U.S. corn export forecast on May 12.

Private Brazilian corn crop estimates continue to drop based on warm/arid weather conditions. In two to three weeks, rain will not make much of a difference with Brazilian total crop estimates likely to slide to 93 million to 96 million metric tons. The loss of 13 million to 16 million metric tons of Brazilian corn is massive in a world marketplace that is short of feed.

Weather forecast maintains complete dryness across Central Brazil's safrinha belt. For the next few weeks, a further decline in Brazilian corn production is forecast which dramatically strains world feed stocks and pushes pressure on U.S. corn availability.

AgResource holds that U.S. corn exports will stay massive as China imports its corn purchases through summer. It does not see much downside potential in July corn below 6.6 dollars. July soybeans have support below 15 dollars. Weather is concerning for the dry areas of U.S. Northern Plains or Northwestern Midwest into mid-May. Enditem

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