CIF/FOB Gulf Grain-Soy, corn barge bids flat; fog slows river traffic

CHICAGO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Basis bids for soybeans and corn shipped by barge to U.S. Gulf Coast terminals were mostly flat on Friday in thin trade following the Christmas holiday, traders said.

• Barge freight values were steady but traffic on the lower Mississippi River has been slowed all week by foggy conditions, traders said, delaying shipments and limiting supplies of empty barges.

• The National Weather Service posted dense fog advisories on Friday afternoon for the Gulf Coast area surrounding New Orleans, Louisiana.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture made no export sales announcements under its daily reporting rules. Federal agencies were closed on Friday by an executive order signed earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump.

• The USDA is scheduled to release its next weekly export sales report, covering the week ended December 18, on Wednesday, December 31.

• CIF bids for Gulf soybean barges loaded in December were steady at 93 cents over Chicago Board of Trade January soybean SF26 futures. CIF bids for January loadings were down a penny from Wednesday at 96 cents over futures.

• FOB offers for vessels loaded from the Gulf in January held steady at about 110 cents over CBOT January futures, and offers for February shipments were steady at around 105 cents over March SH26 futures.

• For corn, CIF Gulf December barges were unchanged at 80 cents over CBOT March corn CH26 futures, while January bids fell 2 cents to 81 cents over futures.

• FOB export premiums for January corn shipments were flat at around 97 cents over March futures.

For displays of CIF basis, click on the codes in brackets:
U.S. CIF Gulf soybeans GRYM
U.S. CIF Gulf corn GRYN
U.S. CIF Gulf SRW wheat GRYO
U.S. CIF Gulf HRW wheat GRYP
For displays of FOB basis, please click on the following codes in brackets:
U.S. FOB Gulf corn GRZC
U.S. FOB Gulf soybeans GRZD
U.S. FOB Gulf SRW wheat GRZE
U.S. FOB Gulf HRW wheat GRZF
LINKS
Corn prices page: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=corn-cash-market
Wheat prices page: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=wheat-cash-market
U.S. barge freight BG/US
U.S. export sales estimates USDA/EST
U.S. grain export summary GRA/U
Brazil soybean export prices SYBS
Brazil corn export prices SYBX
Argentina grain prices GRA/ARG
Russia grain prices GRA/RU