Solid Export Data Support Grain and Oilseed Futures

Grain and oilseed futures continued to rally on Thursday as a short squeeze triggered buying despite the bearish production data released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Wednesday. While traders were focused on the production numbers ahead of the report, relatively bullish changes to the demand sides of balance sheets have driven buying and pushed futures markets off the recent lows. Whether the market will continue to rally in the coming weeks will depend on a mixture of growing conditions and fundamental news, like weekly export sales.

Corn futures jumped about 3 1/2 percent (December contract +11 1/2 cents per bushel) as concerns about crop losses due to the recent storms in Iowa and Illinois combined with weather forecasts projecting warmer weather conditions to raise doubts about USDA’s…