US soyabean futures rallied more than 1.5 percent on Thursday after a weekly export sales report showed stronger-than-expected sales and as soyameal prices surged 3 percent. Corn futures gained about 1 percent and wheat climbed to a 1-1/2 month high on spillover strength from soyabeans.
"There's some renewed excitement in soyabeans after the weekly sales report. There's also some building concern that USDA may be lowering ending stocks in next month's report, raising exports and crush," said Rich Nelson, chief strategist with consultancy Allendale Inc. Gains were kept in check by forecasts for mostly dry weather across the US Midwest that will allow for a pickup in the harvest pace of both corn and soyabeans and flood cash market dealers with much-needed supplies.
Both corn and soyabeans had drawn support earlier in the week after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that the progress of the harvest was behind previous years. Chicago Board of Trade November soyabean futures were up 17 cents, or 1.8 percent, at $9.79-3/4 a bushel by 11:02 am CDT (1602 GMT) while CBOT December corn rose 4-1/2 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $3.57-1/2 a bushel. CBOT December wheat was up 4-1/2 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $5.26-3/4 a bushel after notching a 6-1/2 week peak of $5.30-3/4 earlier in the day.
Soyabeans drew additional support from sharply higher soyameal futures, which gained more than 3 percent on strong cash markets amid tight supplies in the eastern Midwest. USDA said on Thursday morning that weekly export sales of soyabeans were a better-than-expected 2.167 million tonnes. Corn export sales were 1.031 million tonnes, also above market expectations.