Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade rallied nearly 3 percent early on Thursday on spillover support from wheat futures that soared to fresh 11-year highs, traders said. The corn market also found support from oversold technical signals following the decline early this week to nine-month lows, they said.
At 10:51 am CDT (1551 GMT), CBOT corn was up 3-1/2 to 8-1/4 cents per bushel, with September up 8-1/4 at $3.19-3/4 per bushel. New-crop December was up 8 at $3.35-1/4 per bushel.
FC Stone bought 200 December and Tenco Inc bought 100 September, traders said. Traders said the sharp jump in wheat futures amid huge export sales and harsh weather in European wheat growing areas led all markets higher on Thursday. The worrisome European weather also was beginning to cause concerns about the fate of some of Europe's feedgrains crops, including corn. Oat futures were up 10 to 13-1/2 cents per bushel, with September up 13-1/2 at $2.64-1/2 per bushel.