By Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO, Sept 27 (Reuters) – U.S. corn futures rose about 2% on Monday, rallying from early declines on support from tight domestic cash markets and spillover strength from crude oil futures, analysts said.
Soybean futures climbed higher as China booked several U.S. cargos of the oilseed, and wheat futures were narrowly mixed.
As of 12:59 p.m. CDT (1759 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade December corn CZ1 was up 12-1/2 cents at $5.39-1/3 after reaching $5.40, the contract’s highest since Aug. 31.
CBOT November soybeans SX1 were up 3-3/4 cents at $12.88-3/4 a bushel and CBOT December wheat WZ1 was down 1-1/4 cents at $7.22-1/2 a bushel.
Corn rallied despite clear weather in the U.S. Midwest that should promote harvesting. Analysts on average expected the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a weekly report due later on Monday to show the harvest as 19% complete for corn and 15% complete for soybeans.
However, with harvest still in the early stages, cash markets remain relatively firm as processors scramble to meet their immediate needs.
“There hasn’t been enough grain in the pipeline to supply the end-user. We are trying to push the market up high enough to attract the farmer,” said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities.
Corn drew additional support as crude oil CLc1 futures advanced on robust demand. Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for year-end Brent crude oil prices to $90 per barrel, from $80 previously. O/R
Corn sometimes follows trends in the energy market due to its role as the primary U.S. feed stock for ethanol.
CBOT soybeans were supported by USDA’s confirmation of private sales of 334,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China, the world’s largest soy buyer.
Meanwhile, U.S. soybean exports jumped to a six-month peak last week while corn shipments were the highest in a month as Louisiana Gulf Coast terminals steadily ramped up operations disrupted by Hurricane Ida nearly a month ago, preliminary data showed on Monday.
The export pace, however, was still well below normal for this time of year as several terminals remain shuttered or running at reduced capacity.
Traders have begun squaring positions ahead of the USDA’s Sept. 30 quarterly stocks report. Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expect the government to report U.S. Sept. 1 corn stocks at 1.155 billion bushels, below the 1.187 billion bushels that the USDA projected in its last monthly supply/demand report on Sept. 10.
For soybeans, the average estimate of 174 million bushels would be close to the 175 million bushels that the USDA projected on Sept. 10.
(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; editing by David Evans and Toby Chopra)
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