By Michael Hirtzer
CHICAGO, Nov 20 (Reuters) – U.S. corn and soybean futures
jumped as much as 2 percent on Thursday, rebounding from
two-week lows reached in the previous session, in a rally tied
to technical buying and renewed export demand for the crops.
Chicago Board of Trade corn rose for the first time in five
sessions, while soybeans snapped a two-session streak of losses.
Futures extended gains after the U.S. Agriculture Department
said exporters sold more than 100,000 tonnes of each crop to
unknown destinations.
The USDA release followed an earlier announcement of corn
export sales last week of 908,700 tonnes, the largest in a month
and above the high end of analysts’ expectations.
“The export sales were a good number on corn – a net-plus
because everyone has been talking down the exports in the corn
market,” said Agrivisor LLC analyst Dale Durchholz.
The drop in corn and soybean futures to two-week lows
chilled sales from farmers who had nearly finished harvests of
record-large U.S. crops. The slow pace of farmer sales forced
buyers to increase bids, further supporting futures, Durchholz
said.
CBOT December corn was up 10 cents at $3.73-1/4 per
bushel as of 12:45 p.m. CST (1845 GMT), on pace for its largest
daily gain of the month. Soybeans for January delivery
gained 13-1/2 cents to $10.18-1/4 per bushel.
CBOT December wheat was up 7-3/4 cents, or 1.4
percent, at $5.45-1/2 while K.C. December hard red winter wheat
was up 2.3 percent at $6.00.
HRW was leading gains in the wheat complex after Saudi
Arabia, which favors that variety, announced a tender seeking
330,000 tonnes and closing on Friday.
Top wheat importer Egypt earlier said that it purchased
60,000 tonnes of soft wheat from France.
Last Pct Change Net Change Pvs Close
CORN DEC4 373.25 2.75 10 363.25
SOYBEANS JAN5 1018.25 1.34 13.5 1004.75
SOY MEAL DEC4 371 0.16 0.6 370.4
SOYBEAN OIL DEC4 32.57 0.18 0.06 32.51
WHEAT SRW DEC4 545.5 1.44 7.75 537.75
ROUGH RICE JAN5 12.535 1.05 0.13 12.405
M.WHEAT EUR MAR5 177.75 1.43 2.5 175.25
LIGHT CRUDE DEC4 75.19 0.82 0.61 74.58
DJ INDU AVERAGE 17705.59 0.11 19.86 17685.73
BALTIC EXCH DRY 1332 1.99 26 1306
US DOLLAR INDEX 87.574 -0.08 -0.073 87.647
(Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen
Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Lisa Von Ahn)