Financial Markets : COMMODITIES : Grain Prices Mixed; Crop Report Cited

Grain futures prices closed mixed and soybeans were lower on the Chicago Board of Trade as investors reacted to the release of an Agriculture Department crop report.

On other markets, orange juice was higher, precious metals were mixed, copper fell, energy futures dropped and livestock and meat futures declined.

Wheat settled 3.25 cents lower to 0.75 cent higher, with the contract for delivery in March at $4.015 a bushel; corn was 3.75 to 4.25 cents higher, with March at $2.4225 a bushel; oats were a 0.25 to 0.75 cent lower, with March at $1.43 a bushel, and soybeans were a 0.50 cent to 4.25 cents lower, with January at $5.655 a bushel.

The USDA report, released Thursday, showed that the nation’s farmers planted less winter wheat and harvested less corn and fewer soybeans last fall.

Farmers planted about 57 million acres of winter wheat for harvest this year, up 3% from the previous crop. The department estimated the 1989 corn crop at 7.5 billion bushels and soybean production at 1.9 billion bushels.

Soybeans were sharply higher at the open, but fell back because of weak cash prices and very good growing conditions in South America.

The smaller-than-expected corn harvest proved to be a boost to corn futures.

The reduced number of seedings sent wheat futures higher at the open, but only the July new-crop contract ended on the plus side due to somewhat dry conditions in pockets of winter wheat.