* Talk of China buying corn; makes fresh soy buys
* New-crop contracts post more modest gains
(Updates with U.S. trading, analyst’s comment, previous dateline MADRID)
By Rod Nickel and Sam Nelson
WINNIPEG, Manitoba/CHICAGO, April 19 (Reuters) – Corn and wheat rallied off
three-month lows on Thursday, lifted by talk of China buying U.S. corn, after
grains slid sharply during the previous session.
Soybeans also rose on Chinese export demand after the U.S. Department of
Agriculture reported a fresh old-crop sale of 110,000 tonnes and U.S. weekly
export sales were above trade expectations.
“We took (corn) prices down hard over the past couple of weeks and we
started to hear of increased interest not only from China, but others,” said
Shawn McCambridge, analyst at Jefferies Bache in Chicago. “There’s probably some
legitimacy behind this kind of talk – I would anticipate the low we hit did
generate some business.”
Chicago Board of Trade May corn was up 16-3/4 cents or 2.8 percent at
$6.18-1/2 a bushel as of 9:39 a.m. CDT (1438 GMT), while gains were more
modest for the new-crop December contract.
Corn is likely to attract buying on the dips until the level of new-crop
2012/13 production is clearer, McCambridge said, noting that weekly export sales
reported on Thursday showed little demand last week at high prices.
USDA’s weekly export sales report on Thursday showed net
export sales of U.S. corn last week at 298,000 tonnes, below
estimates for 700,000 to 950,000 tonnes.
Drought has hit South American corn and soybean production, and old-crop
U.S. corn supplies are expected to shrink to the lowest in 16 years by the end
of the summer. Those stockpiles could be replenished in the next U.S. harvest,
if farmers plant the largest corn area since 1944 as forecast.
May soybeans added 21-1/4 cents or 1.5 percent to $14.29 a bushel.
USDA reported export sales of U.S. soybeans in the latest
week at 1.219 million tonnes, for the old- and new-crop years combined,
above a range of trade expectations for 850,000 to 1.1 million tonnes.
Chicago May wheat advanced 12 cents or 2 percent to $6.22-3/4 a
bushel, on short-covering spurred by the rebound in corn and soybeans.
Net export sales of U.S. wheat last week at 442,200 tonnes, below estimates
for 450,000 to 650,000 tonnes.
Frost and freezing temperatures are expected by the weekend into early next
week in the northern U.S. Midwest but minor harm is expected to crops, said Andy
Karst, meteorologist for World Weather Inc.
Rainy weather slowed planting of U.S. corn last weekend but farmers were
still well ahead of their typical schedule due to warm soil temperatures, U.S.
Agriculture Department data released on Tuesday showed.
Prices at 9:39 a.m. CDT (1438 GMT)
LAST NET PCT YTD
CHG CHG CHG
CBOT corn 618.50 16.75 2.8% -4.3%
CBOT soy 1429.00 21.25 1.5% 19.2%
CBOT meal 395.70 5.10 1.3% 27.9%
CBOT soyoil 55.69 0.52 0.9% 6.9%
CBOT wheat 622.75 12.00 2.0% -4.6%
CBOT rice 1545.00 -3.00 -0.2% 5.8%
EU wheat 216.00 1.25 0.6% 6.7%
US crude 102.58 -0.09 -0.1% 3.8%
Dow Jones 13,046 14 0.1% 6.8%
Gold 1646.90 5.62 0.3% 5.3%
Euro/dollar 1.3143 0.0023 0.2% 1.5%
Dollar Index 79.4960 -0.0420 -0.1% -0.9%
Baltic Freight 1028 22 2.2% -40.9%
(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Sam Nelson in Chicago; editing by
Sofina Mirza-Reid)
