CHICAGO: US soybean futures edged higher on Thursday, rebounding on technical buying after the previous session's steep losses, while corn and wheat futures were mixed in choppy trading as the dollar rose, traders said.
All three commodities pared earlier gains, with the US Department of Agriculture's monthly forecast on Wednesday for larger-than-expected and record-large US corn and soy harvests continuing to hang over the market. The dollar was testing Oct. 25's roughly nine-month high against a basket of currencies, making US goods more expensive in some global markets.
Chicago Board of Trade January soybean futures were up 7-1/2 cents at $9.98-1/2 per bushel at 10:58 a.m. CST (1658 GMT), after reaching an earlier high of $10.19 per bushel.
Soybeans came off their session peaks after USDA in a weekly report said about 1 million tonnes of US soybeans were sold for export in the week ended Nov. 3, below expectations for 1.7 million to 2 million.
Export sales of US corn of 1.2 million tonnes were within the range of expectations and export sales of US wheat of 769,581 tonnes were above expectations. CBOT December corn was up 1-1/4 cents at $3.42 per bushel and CBOT December wheat down 1/4 cent to $4.06-1/2.
"A lot of the bearish news is out there, so how much more bearish can you be when we know there is a lot of grain and oilseeds?" said Stefan Vogel, global grain strategist at Rabobank.
"I expect continued strong US soybean exports, not just this week but for much of the season."
With abundant supplies of US corn, soybeans and wheat, some farmers were looking for opportunities to sell physical supplies, according to Linn Group analyst Roy Huckabay. "On any rally, you have farmer selling," Huckabay said, adding that farmer selling would likely cap potential gains.
Market attention also was turning to South American crops now being grown.
Brazil's official crop supply agency Conab forecast Brazil early next year would harvest a soybean crop of 101.6 million tonnes to 103.5 million tonnes, down slightly from its outlook of 101.9 to 104.0 million tonnes last month. Conab estimated Brazil's 2016/2017 corn output at 83.1 to 84.6 million tonnes, up from 82.3 to 83.8 million tonnes last month.
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