Corn prices rise as China muscles in
The price of corn charged ahead Friday, boosted by strong demand from China. Prices for wheat and soybeans also rose.
Corn climbed 18 cents, or 3 percent, to $6.255 per bushel. Soybeans rose 13.25 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $14.935 per bushel. For the week, corn was up nearly 4 percent and soybeans were up nearly 3 percent, as China bought both.
Brandon Marshall, a commodities trader at Northstar Commodity in Minneapolis, said China's demand for U.S. corn and soybeans is abnormally high because of a weak crop in South America. The country is using the commodities for animal feed to sustain pork supplies, Marshall said.
Wheat rose 14.5 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $6.50 per bushel.
On an up day for the stock market, metals rose across the board. The most notable changes were in copper and palladium. Copper for May delivery rose 5.3 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $3.82 per pound. June palladium rose $8.85, or 1.3 percent, to $681.50 per ounce.
Gold, silver and platinum all rose by less than half of one percentage point. Gold for June delivery rose $4.30 to $1,664.80 per ounce. May silver rose 14 cents to $31.347 per ounce. July platinum rose $5.50 to $1,575.70 per ounce.
Natural gas rose 6 cents to finish at $2.186 per 1,000 cubic feet in Friday trading. That's up nearly 15 percent from April 19 when the price hit the lowest level in more than a decade at $1.907 per 1,000 cubic feet. The price had plunged as a mild winter created a glut of supply, but cooler weather in the Northeast, the Midwest and the Rockies could prompt homeowners to turn up their heat.
Benchmark oil rose 38 cents to end at $104.93 per barrel in New York. Brent crude fell 9 cents to finish at $119.83 per barrel in London. Heating oil lost 1.37 cents to end at $3.1807 per gallon and gasoline futures rose 2.29 cents to finish at $3.2062 per gallon.
