(Reuters) – Chicago wheat rose for a second consecutive session on Friday, heading towards its first weekly gain in seven, supported by bargain-buying and strong demand for U.S. supplies. Soybeans edged lower but the oilseed is on track for its biggest weekly gain since late November as Chinese buying and demand from processors in the United States supported prices.
“U.S. wheat is beginning to gain attractiveness in the export market,” said Vanessa Tan, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore. “Exports sales data released yesterday reflected a sharp increase of U.S. wheat export sales compared with the previous week.”
Chicago Board Of Trade March wheat is up 0.8 percent for the week, the first weekly climb in seven weeks. Over the previous six weeks of losses, March wheat lost 15 percent.
On Friday, March wheat was up 0.2 percent to $5.74 a bushel by 0251 GMT.
March soybeans were down 0.2 percent to $13.12-1/2 a bushel, but were on track for a 2.7 percent gain for the week, the biggest in eight weeks.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported weekly wheat exports of 586,800 tonnes, a gain of 41 percent from the previous week and 53 percent higher than the prior 4-week average.
Egypt’s GASC, the world’s top buyer of wheat, said it bought 295,000 tonnes of wheat for shipment in February, including 60,000 tonnes of U.S. soft red winter wheat.
Soybeans are being buoyed by strong demand in the U.S. domestic as well as export markets.
The National Oilseed Processors Association this week said its U.S. members crushed 165.384 million bushels of soybeans in December, the largest monthly total in NOPA records dating back through 2002.
The figure was up from 160.145 million in November and topped an average of analyst estimates at 163.9 million bushels.
Soybean export sales were 701,500 tonnes in the latest reporting week, up from a marketing year low 155,500 tonnes a week ago.
“We are seeing strong export demand for U.S. soybeans especially from China, with sales being confirmed by the USDA throughout this week,” said Tan.
In the corn market, an uptick in demand for U.S. supplies supported prices although gains were capped by China’s cancellation of more cargoes.
March corn eased 0.2 percent to $4.27-1/4 a bushel. For the week, March corn is down 1.2 percent, the third weekly slide in the last month.
Export sales of corn were a better-than-expected 821,000 tonnes, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday morning.
But the USDA also confirmed 169,800 tonnes of net sales cancellations by China in the latest week, adding to a recent string of rejections stemming from the discovery of an unapproved strain of genetically modified corn.
