Bulk Shipping: Corn surges on technical buying, solid exports

U.S. corn futures climbed to a two-week high on Friday on technical buying and support from strong U.S. export sales, putting the market on pace for its strongest weekly advance in a month.

Soybeans followed corn higher, although forecasts for a record-breaking Brazilian harvest limited gains, while wheat futures were mixed.

Row crop futures have largely held within narrow trading ranges since mid-November as traders assessed crop weather in South America, Russia and other key production zones and gauged possible shifts to global trade following the U.S. presidential election.

"Corn is trying to lead the way higher. We had an outside reversal higher day yesterday, which is the most positive thing we've seen on the chart in some time," said Ted Seifried, vice president of Zaner Group.

The bullish technical move featured actively traded March corn bouncing off of its 100-day moving average on Thursday and breaking through its 50-day average to close above the prior session's high. Follow-through buying on Friday took the contract to its highest since Nov. 21.

March corn was 4-1/2 cents higher at $4.39-1/2 per bushel by 11:40 a.m. CST (1740 GMT), on pace for a nearly 2% weekly advance.

Larger-than-expected export sales in a weekly U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on Thursday helped to further support corn, Seifried said.

January soybeans were 1-1/4 cents higher at $9.95 a bushel and up about 0.5% in the week. CBOT March wheat WH25 was up 3/4 cent at $5.59 a bushel after earlier touching a one-week high, putting the market in position for a 2% weekly gain.

Wheat markets have been grappling this week with a poor start to the growing season in Russia.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev said on Thursday that Russian winter crops are in poor condition and will need to be partially replaced by spring crops.