CANBERRA: Chicago corn futures rose on Thursday after US shippers reported their biggest daily export sale in more than a year, but prices remained under pressure as the ongoing US harvest poured supply onto the market.

Corn and soybeans regain a little ground after sell-off

Wheat futures also gained as a warning that polar winds could hit crops in Argentina underscored fears that dry conditions in exporters such as Australia could tighten the market.

Soybeans edged higher after forecasts for rain in top producer Brazil helped push prices to their lowest since late August.

Fundamentals

• The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.3% at $4.06 a bushel at 0022 GMT, while CBOT wheat climbed 0.4% to $5.87-1/4 a bushel and soybeans rose 0.3% to $9.83 a bushel.

• All three contracts have been under pressure from a sharp strengthening of the US dollar this month, massive US corn and soy harvests and rain in South America and the Black Sea, two key export hubs.

• Prices are not far from four-year lows reached earlier this year.

• The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Wednesday that US exporters sold 1.6 million metric tons of US corn to Mexico.

• This demonstrated to speculators that low crop prices can attract demand and triggered short covering, brokers StoneX said.

• However, dry weather in the US has accelerated harvesting, with 47% of the corn crop and 67% of the soybean crop gathered by Sunday, well above the average pace of the last five years, according to the USDA.

• Forecasts for beneficial rains in dry crop-growing areas of South America also loom over the corn and soy markets, though Antarctic polar winds blowing over Argentina could further dry out corn and wheat fields there, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said.

• In Ukraine, high demand for wheat from Asian importers and a limited supply on global markets has pushed domestic and export prices up, producers said.