US FOB Gulf soyabean basis offers were steady to firm on Thursday with a rally in futures tied to evidence of fresh export interest for old-crop soyabeans, traders said. FOB Gulf corn and HRW wheat basis values were steady while SRW wheat had a softer tone as exporters try to stir customer interest.
Soyabean futures and cash values were buoyed by Thursday's weekly export sales of 97,900 tonnes for old crop and loadings of 192,300 tonnes. Loadings were up 31 percent from the previous week while sales were up 13 percent when some traders had expected net cancellations for the week.
This week's drop in old-crop soya futures to three-month lows uncovered the fresh interest and underscored tight old-crop domestic stocks. Export commitments for new-crop continued strong. USDA said of the 285,800 tonnes booked last week, almost all were to China and unknown.
FOB soyabeans were unchanged across the board except last half September with offers up 5 cents at 160 cents over CBOT July futures. June/July old-crop offers were steady at 92 cents over July futures.
CBOT July soyabeans ended 11-3/4 up at $14.20-3/4 and November soya closed 14-1/4 higher at $12.27-1/4.
Corn FOB values were unchanged with July offers at 85 cents and July futures and August/September at 85 over September futures.
CBOT July corn closed 9 cents higher at $4.50-1/2.
Corn prices remain competitive with new-crop Argentina but weekly export sales of 109,000 tonnes were down sharply from the week before with the cancellations to unknown of almost 400,000 tonnes. Shipments of 1.123 million tonnes were up 5 percent from last week and included 200 tonnes to China.
HRW wheat FOB prices were quoted unchanged with June at 148 cents over Kansas City July futures and July at 145 over futures. Talk of more interest from Brazil was the main feature of the day. USDA said Brazil booked 121,500 tonnes of HRW in the latest week and shipped 101,500 tonnes of HRW.