Chicago | Reuters – Chicago Board of Trade corn futures reached their highest level since early June on Friday on U.S. export demand, while soybean futures also rose.
In a daily reporting system, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said exporters sold 273,988 metric tons of U.S. corn to unknown buyers for 2025-26 delivery. The agency also confirmed exporters sold 312,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to China for 2025-26 delivery.
The USDA earlier reported U.S. corn export sales were 2.8 million tons for 2025-26 and 571,500 tons for 2026-27 in the week that ended October 16. Analysts had expected sales of 1.4 million to 2.5 million tons for 2025-26 and 500,000 to 1 million tons for 2026-27, according to a Reuters poll.
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The agency was catching up on releasing weekly data after halting export sales reports during the federal government’s record-long shutdown.
“It’s old data. However, it did reveal some very impressive corn sales during the week,” said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for StoneX.
Analysts projected the USDA on Monday would report corn export sales of 1.1 million to 2.5 million tons for the week that ended on October 23.
Chinese soy demand watched
Most-active corn futures Cv1 closed up 2-1/2 cents at $4.47-3/4 per bushel after rising earlier to $4.48-1/2, the highest since June 2. The contract gained 2.3 per cent for the week.
Soybean futures Sv1 jumped 6-1/4 cents to end at $11.37-3/4 per bushel, and wheat futures Wv1 finished 2 cents lower at $5.38-1/2 per bushel at the CBOT. For the week, soybeans rose 1.1% and wheat fell 0.2 per cent.
Trading ended early on Friday after the markets closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.
Traders have been closely monitoring China’s demand for U.S. soybeans after the nations struck a trade truce in late October. China had shunned U.S. soy prior to the agreement due to its trade dispute with Washington and shifted its buying to South America.
The Brazilian agriculture ministry said on Thursday it was notified by Chinese authorities that five Brazilian soy exporters were banned from shipping the grain to the Asian country.
“The market continues to watch what the Chinese do in their buying of not only U.S. beans, but what they do now with Brazilian beans and their halted purchasing from select plants,” CHS Hedging said.
