A combine harvester collects soybeans in the village of Khorol, Russia File photo: VCG
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures gained double digits over export sales, while soybeans continued the downturn due to trade uncertainty in a Thanksgiving-shortened trading week.
The most active wheat contract for March delivery rose 23 cents to close at $5.42 per bushel. March corn was up 2.75 cents to settle at $3.81 per bushel.
But January soybeans fell 20.25 cents to end at $8.77 per bushel on November 29.
CBOT soybean prices remained below the 9-dollar-per-bushel level throughout the week, amid the lack of a breakthrough concerning the ongoing trade talks between the US and China. Since November 20, soybean futures have suffered losses in seven straight sessions.
CBOT brokers estimated that funds sold thousands of soybean futures during the week, even an upbeat weekly export sales report failed to push up the oil seed prices.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that during the period of November 15-21, net soybean sales reached 1,664,100 metric tons for the 2019-20 marketing year, up 14 percent from the previous week and 25 percent from the prior four-week average. Increases were primarily for China, the world's top soybean buyer. Nevertheless, soybean futures were oversold, despite rising export sales.
"A China trade deal or adverse South American weather is needed to spur a recovery," the Chicago-based agricultural research firm AgResource wrote in a commentary. Another factor is the weakening of South American currencies, said analysts. In the same USDA export sales report, net US wheat sales were up 60 percent from the prior four-week average.
The upbeat export data had a lot of CBOT traders caught by surprise and pushed up wheat prices to new highs since the end of June.
Short covering contributed to the sharp rally of wheat futures as well, while slow winter wheat seeding in France and the UK also lent support, market watchers said.
The wheat rally also spread to corn prices. However, favorable crop weather in Brazil and Argentina, two other leading corn suppliers, pressured CBOT corn futures and dented the rise of corn prices, market analysts said.