US FOB corn basis offers were lower on Thursday, but dealers said there were signs the market was bottoming out. Soyabeans basis values were steady to lower.
Hard red winter wheat basis offers were steady, but bids fell 1-3 cents a bushel in the CIF barge market, weighed down by increased supplies. FOB soft red winter wheat was lower despite a sale to Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities.
GASC bought 60,000 tonnes of US SRW wheat for February 1-15 shipment from the Gulf at $162.00/tonne FOB.
"Export sales were disappointing," one dealer said. USDA said weekly export sales totalled just 145,200 tonnes, 67 percent below the previous week.
The USDA report said 182,000 tonnes sold to unknown buyers were cancelled. There was speculation last week that China had cancelled some of its purchases of US wheat.
Tunisia bought 175,000 tonnes of optional origin wheat for shipment in seven cargoes between February and April. European traders said supplies would likely come from Argentina.
But a US dealer said some of the cargoes for shipment March through April could be sourced from the United States because of competitive pricing during that period.
Corn basis offers were lower, but dealers said higher values in the CIF barge market after more than a week of declines signalled the market could be bottoming out.
They said last-half January CIF corn was traded at 33 cents a bushel over the CBOT March, while February was traded at 34 cents over. One dealer said supplies that had built up with heavy farmer selling were being whittled away.