US soyabean futures rose on Thursday on signs that demand will keep domestic supplies tight until harvest, while corn weakened due to forecasts for more crop-boosting rain in the US Midwest, traders said. "The beans firmed up due to some speculators taking advantage of the weakness earlier in light of the very strong demand we are seeing," said Terry Reilly, an analyst at Futures International in Chicago.
Wheat also rose, which traders attributed to strengthening export prospects due to concerns about quality in the European crop as well as some end-of-month short-covering.
Chicago Board of Trade soyabeans for August delivery settled up 4 cents at $12.24-1/2 a bushel. CBOT November soyabeans, which track what is expected to be a record US crop, were up just 3/4 cent at $10.82 a bushel.
The US Agriculture Department said on Thursday morning that old-crop export sales of soyabeans were 187,400 tonnes in the latest reporting week, near the high end of the range of forecasts for 100,000 to 200,000. New-crop soyabean export sales were 1.27 million tonnes, bigger than expected.
CBOT September corn was 4-3/4 cents lower at $3.57 a bushel, while CBOT September wheat was up 3 cent at $5.30-1/4 a bushel.
Soyabeans fell 12.6 percent in July, on track for their biggest monthly decline since September 2011. Corn was down 15.8 percent for the month, while wheat dropped 6.1 percent.