US corn futures rallied to a one-month high Thursday on strong export sales and technical buying, but prices came off peaks on a lack of follow-through buying amid plentiful supplies. Soybeans rose to recoup some losses from Wednesday, when the market shrugged off a cut to US stocks by the US Department of Agriculture and focused on improving chances of bumper crops in South America.
Wheat was mixed in choppy trading, lifted at times by short covering but anchored by sluggish export demand, with the US again priced out of contention in a snap tender by Egypt's government buyer GASC. "Volatility is the rule today," said Brian Basting, analyst with Advance Trading in Bloomington, Illinois. "We saw March corn go above $4 but didn't get much follow through and that fuelled some technical selling."
In its monthly world crop report on Wednesday, the USDA put global wheat ending stocks above the range of analyst estimates. The agency also unexpectedly cut US corn stocks, but supplies remained near a more-than-ample 2 billion bushels. In soybeans, the market was assessing a lower-than-expected USDA outlook for ending stocks in the United States and world-wide against rising expectations of big South American crops.
Brazil's Agriculture Ministry supply agency Conab raised its forecast for the 2014/15 soybean crop to a record 95.8 million tonnes, but USDA retained its earlier 94-million-tonne outlook. Strong export sales data released by USDA fuelled early strength in corn and soybeans.
Corn sales last week were pegged at 962,800 tonnes, near the high end of trade expectations and the fourth consecutive week of sales above 900,000 tonnes. Soybean sales were 810,300 tonnes and all wheat sales were 442,300 tonnes, both in line with expectations. Chicago Board of Trade March corn rose 2-1/4 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $3.96 per bushel by 12:10 pm CST (1810 GMT) after earlier hitting a one-month high of $4.01. The contract rose above its 150-day moving average of $3.98 but failed to hold the gains. CBOT January soybeans added 11-1/2 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $10.43-1/2 a bushel. CBOT March wheat gained 7-1/2 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $5.89-1/4 a bushel after earlier hitting a 1-1/2 week low of $5.72-3/4.
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