Soybean exports to lead prices higher

(Agriculture.com) – A friendly export sales report will help the CME Group soybean futures trade higher Thursday. Meanwhile, CME Group corn and wheat markets lack fresh news.

The Early Calls for the commodities on Thursday, December 13, 2012, are mostly lower. Corn is seen opening 2-3 cents lower, soybeans 1-2 cents lower to -1-2 cents higher, and wheat 1-2 cents higher.

In overnight trading, the March corn futures contract traded 2 cents lower at $7.23 per bushel. Jan. soybean futures traded 1 cent lower at $14.73 per bushel, and March wheat traded 1 cent higher at $8.13. For Jan. soybean meal futures, the contract traded $0.10 per short ton lower at $451.90. Jan. soybean oil futures traded $0.05 higher at $49.59

The outside markets are unfavorable for Thursday’s grain trade. The real factors driving the calls will be the lower overnight markets.

The USDA releases a bullish Weekly Export Sales report Thursday for the soybean market.

In its report, the USDA shows that corn exports totaled 272,600 metric tons vs. the trade’s expectations of 150,000-400,000 mt.

For soybeans, USDA pegged exports at 1.32 million mt vs. the trade’s expectations of 550,000-900,000 mt.

Wheat sales totaled 573,500 mt vs. the trade’s expectations of 300,000-600,000 mt.

For soybean meal, the report shows 271,900 vs. the trade’s expectations of 200,000-350,000 metric tons.