Corn slips after hitting 7-1/2 year top, buoyed by Chinese demand

CHICAGO: U.S. corn futures slipped on Thursday after hitting a 7-1/2 year high, supported by the U.S. Agriculture Department's confirmation of strong Chinese demand.

Soybeans were little changed as traders weighed rain delays to Brazil's harvest.

Wheat moved lower, despite weekly export sales at the high end of analysts' expectations.

The most-active corn futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade fell 3-1/4 cents to $5.48-3/4 per bushel by 11:29 a.m. (1729 GMT), after reaching $5.58, its highest since June 2013.

CBOT soybeans gained 2 cents to $13.73-1/4 per bushel, while wheat slid 12-1/2 cents to $6.36 per bushel.

Export sales of U.S. corn reached 7.520 million tonnes in the week ending Jan. 28, according to the USDA - the biggest week of sales on record.

They were led by 5.860 million tonnes sold to China, though the market had already absorbed much of those sales when they were announced in daily export notices.

Weekly old-crop U.S. soybean export sales of 824,000 tonnes were above trade estimates, led by 598,900 tonnes to China.

"We had a nice showing across the board in the ag sector on the weekly sales," said Mike Zuzolo, president of Global Commodity Analytics.

He said soybean futures could rise further before the USDA issues a monthly crop report on Feb. 9 amid supply concerns.

"I could see the beans remaining firm against the corn and the wheat going all the way into the report," said Zuzolo.

Meanwhile, Brazil's agriculture minister said the country expects to harvest 133 million tonnes of soybeans and more than 103 million tonnes of corn, despite harvest delays caused by excessive rain.

The USDA's local office reduced its estimate for Brazilian corn production to 105 million tonnes, versus the official USDA forecast of 109 million tonnes.

Brazil's crops have suffered from a lot of rain, especially in the south, said Ed Duggan, senior risk management specialist at Top Third Ag Marketing. "Behind schedule harvest in Brazil, that's delaying planting the second corn crop," he said.

Wheat traders were assessing the latest Russian announcement regarding export taxes, with the government saying it plans to launch a permanent mechanism on April 1.