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SINGAPORE — Chicago corn futures bounced back on Thursday, with prices climbing 0.8% as the market was underpinned by strong demand from China.
Wheat rose after three sessions of decline, while soybeans inched higher.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade (CBOT) added 0.8% to $6.63-3/4 a bushel by 0028 GMT, having closed largely unchanged in the last session.
* Soybeans gained 0.6% to $15.47-1/2 a bushel and wheat rose 0.8% to $6.84-3/4 a bushel.
* The U.S. Agriculture Department announced sale to China for a fifth day in a row on Wednesday.
* The 2021-22 marketing year is still a few months away, but China within the last few days has secured nearly a third of its expected corn needs out of the United States for next season, Karen Braun, a market analyst for Reuters wrote in a column.
* Argentina’s grains exports were paralyzed after port workers launched a strike over what they described as a lack of COVID-19 vaccinations among members, the head of the Port and Maritime Activities chamber told Reuters by telephone.
* Improved growing conditions are likely to cap gains in wheat prices.
* Germany’s 2021 wheat crop of all types is expected to increase by 2.4% year-on-year to around 22.66 million tonnes, the country’s association of farm cooperatives said in its latest harvest estimate on Wednesday.
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* Crop scouts on the second day of an annual three-day tour of Kansas projected an average yield for hard red winter wheat in the southwestern portion of the state at 56.7 bushels per acre, up from 47.6 bushels in 2019.
* Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean, wheat, soyoil and soymeal futures contracts on Wednesday, traders said.
MARKET NEWS
* Stocks on Wall Street ended down but well off session lows on Wednesday as minutes from the last U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed participants agreed the U.S. economy remained far from the central bank’s goals.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0130 Australia Employment April 0130 Australia Unemployment Rate April 1230 US Initial Jobless Clm Weekly 1230 US Philly Fed Business Indx May (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Rashmi Aich)