Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Board of Trade corn futures advanced on U.S. export demand on Wednesday, while bargain-hunting lifted wheat futures after prices set contract lows, traders said.
Global importers have been striking deals for U.S. corn supplies as prices are attractive on the world market, the dollar has weakened and rival exporter Brazil has limited supplies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a daily reporting system that unknown buyers purchased 120,000 metric tons of U.S. corn, following other recent purchases by Spain and Mexico. The agency is slated to issue weekly grain and soybean export sales data on Thursday.
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U.S. wheat futures closed higher on Thursday on concerns over the limited availability of supplies for export in Russia, analysts said.
“We’ve had quite a bit of activity here on the daily wire,” said Matt Wiegand, commodity broker for FuturesOne. “That’s helping to bounce us back.”
The Korea Feed Association in South Korea also is believed to have purchased about 65,000 metric tons of animal feed corn expected to be sourced from the United States in a private deal on Wednesday, European traders said.
Most-actively traded CBOT corn futures Cv1 ended up 5-1/4 cents at $4.75-1/2 per bushel after falling earlier to the lowest level since April 9.
CBOT wheat Wv1 closed 5-1/4 cents higher at $5.30-3/4 per bushel. The most-active July contract WN25 earlier set a contract low of $5.23-1/4.
Short-covering supported wheat futures, which had become oversold, traders said.
Recent rains have benefited wheat crops in the U.S. Plains that farmers will harvest in the coming months, and forecasters said they expect more showers.
Weather conditions look generally non-threatening for U.S. soybean and corn planting, traders said.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing hung over soy futures because China is the world’s top importer of the oilseed, they added.
CBOT soybean futures Sv1 closed down 8-1/4 cents at $10.44-1/2 per bushel and reached their lowest price since April 16.
A USDA report on Thursday is expected to show that U.S. soybean processors crushed 6.165 million short tons of the oilseed in March and soyoil stocks reached an eight-month high, according to a Reuters survey of analysts.
—Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris
