CHICAGO- Chicago Board of Trade corn futures rose to their highest in seven months on Friday as concerns about production in South America spurred demand for US supplies, traders said.
Soybean futures eased from the seven-month top they hit on Thursday, succumbing to a round of profit taking. Soybeans closed well above lows reached overnight after government reports showed export demand remained strong.
“We are seeing a lot of sloshing of money around in the markets,” said Greg Grow, director of agribusiness at Archer Financial Services in Chicago. “It is a real volatile, choppy affair.
We came in this morning and we got some export business.”
The US Agriculture Department (USDA) said private exporters reported the sale of 132,000 tons of soybeans to China and 247,800 tons of corn to unknown destinations.
Separately, USDA said weekly export sales of soybeans totaled 1.199 million tons, up 30.5 percent from a week earlier. Corn export sales of 1.196 million tons were near the high end of market forecasts.
