By Cassandra Garrison
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chicago corn futures closed higher for a third straight session on Thursday on rising U.S. export demand, while wheat lost ground on U.N. pressure for an extension of the Sea grain deal. Black, analysts said.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) made its third consecutive announcement of US old-crop corn sales to China totaling 1.92 million tonnes in three days.
Some traders expect the USDA to report sales of another 600,000 tonnes or more of US corn before the end of the week.
Corn sales to China have not spiked on consecutive days since May 2021, and the last corn flash to China before this week was recorded in August.
Wheat has dropped, analysts said, as the UN backed Turkey and Ukraine in asking for a 120-day extension of a deal allowing the safe export of grain from several Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea. Russia said it would only extend the pact for 60 days.
“It looks like the Black Sea deal is done. It’s only 60 or 120 days,” said Craig Turner, a commodities trader at Daniels Trading.
Soybeans reversed earlier losses and ended higher on hopes for US sales to China, traders say. Argentina also lowered its soy production estimate for the 2022/2023 season to 25 million tonnes, down from 29 million tonnes previously.
The most active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 6.25 cents to $6.3275 a bushel.
Wheat closed down 3.75 cents at $6.99 a bushel. Soybeans rose 2.25 cents to 14.9150 a bushel after falling as low as $14.78, the contract’s lowest level since Feb. 28.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Chicago, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore);
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