US corn, soyabean and wheat futures rallied sharply on Thursday, fuelled by signs of strong export demand, traders said. Concern about crops in South America sparked interest in US supplies from overseas buyers, who typically source the bulk of their corn and soyabeans needs from Brazil and Argentina at this time of year. "The exports were a big wake-up call," said Mark Schultz, chief analyst at Northstar Commodity Investment Co. Chicago Board of Trade front-month wheat and corn futures each jumped more than 2 percent while soyabeans briefly hit their highest since August.
In its weekly export sales report, the US Agriculture Department on Thursday said net US corn export sales topped 2.6 million tonnes for shipment in the current and next marketing years, the most for a single week in four years. Net soyabean sales for the combined marketing years were the largest in more than three months and combined wheat sales were the biggest since last July. At 10:30 am CST (1530 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade May corn futures were up 8 cents at $3.88-3/4 a bushel while CBOT May wheat was up 11-1/2 cents at $4.85-3/4 a bushel.
CBOT May soyabean futures rose 15 cents to $10.34 a bushel. The front-month contract topped out at $10.36-3/4, its highest since August 11, 2015. A third of Argentina's soya farms remain swamped after early April storms. Analysts estimated crop losses at 5 million tonnes as harvesting starts in areas dry enough to support the 30-tonne combines used to bring in the beans.
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