US wheat futures rose nearly 2 percent on Thursday, leading grain markets higher as the dollar weakened and investors fretted about dry weather in the Plains. Corn futures rallied from sharp declines a day earlier, as weekly export sales topped 1 million tonnes for a fifth straight week to match the longest such streak since late 2007 as importers scrambled for supplies amid tightening stocks.
Soybeans rose on export demand and concerns about labor disputes at a key port in Argentina, the world's third-biggest soy supplier, which could divert demand to the United States. As of 10:55 am CST (1655 GMT) on the Chicago Board of Trade, May wheat was up 13-3/4 cents at $8.25 per bushel. May corn was up 9-1/4 cents at $7.30-3/4 a bushel and May soybeans were up 13-1/4 cents at $14.07-1/2.
Wheat posted the largest gains on a percentage basis on the CBOT grains floor. "We've got weakness in the dollar - we are trading down to November-type values," said Shawn McCambridge with Prudential Bache Commodities in Chicago. "We are seeing strength in other (grain) markets, and wheat continues to be the one commodity that remains oversold. With that, there was enough to get some short-covering in here," McCambridge said.
CBOT corn bounced back from Wednesday's fund-driven sell-off and was on track to post a weekly gain, buoyed by a fifth straight week of US export sales topping 1 million tonnes. Analysts expect US corn sales to slow in the coming weeks, but the US Department of Agriculture has projected corn stocks to drop to a 15-year low by the end of the marketing year on August 31.
That underlying tightness, which is expected to persist into the following marketing year, has been the foundation of a bull market in corn that drove front-month futures to a near 32-month high this week at $7.32-1/2. "Strong export sales and strong fundamentals continue to provide us with the solid support," McCambridge said. "Each time we take this market down, we find another cycle of buying," he added.
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