Corn and soybean futures closed little changed on Thursday, while wheat was a bit higher.
Soybeans ended slightly higher on the day, trading to both sides of unchanged in “lackluster fashion,” with little hard news around, said Marex in a note. This morning’s USDA weekly export sales report was disappointing, with bookings of US beans for the week ended Feb. 6 at 185,502 tonnes. That fell below the low end of pre-report trade guesses and was the second lowest for the marketing year so far. March beans gained 2 ¼ cents to $10.30, and November was up 1 ¼ cents at $10.45 ¼.
Corn also traded to both sides of unchanged but did draw support from strong weekly export sales. Corn bookings for the week ended Feb. 6 amounted to 1.65 million tonnes, near the top of the range of trade guesses and a three-week high. March corn was up 3 ¼ cents at $4.93 ½, while new-crop December eased ¾ of a cent to $4.72 ¾.
Wheat gleaned support from major import tenders and good export demand. US wheat bookings for the week ended Feb. 6 were reported at 569,561 tonnes, a seven-week high and on the high end of market expectations. Bitterly cold weather extended as far south as the northern Texas panhandle this morning, but no major impact on US winter wheat crop was expected due to a protective snow cover. Some colder weather is also on its way to the Black Sea region, although no extreme temperatures are in the forecast. March Chicago wheat was up 3 ½ cents to $5.77 ¾, March Kansas City added 6 ¾ cents to $5.98 ¼, and March Minneapolis was 2 cents higher at $6.16 ¾.
