Wheat futures reclaimed $7 a bushel in Chicago, and rose back over $7.50 a bushel in Kansas, after the US revealed export sales well ahead of market forecasts, with robust trade in soybeans and soymeal too.
Chicago soft red winter wheat for July delivery stood 2.0% higher at $7.02 ½ a bushel in mid-morning deals, with Kansas hard red winter wheat for July up 1.4% at $7.53 ½ a bushel.
The rises followed the release by the US Department of Agriculture of data showing export sales of 239,400 tonnes of grain from last year's harvest, and 713,600 tonnes forward booked from this year's crop, for a total of 953,000 tonnes.
"Wheat futures are taking the lead today on brisk export sales that were well over two times [some] market expectations," Richard Feltes at broker RJ O'Brien said.
Spread of demand
The figures also pleased some investors by showing a variety of buyers.
Nigeria took more than 100,000 tonnes of 2012 wheat, with Brazil buying 72,000 tonnes, and the north African state of Algeria, which typically purchases wheat across the Mediterranean from France, and Israel also featuring.
For new crop, importers ranged from Malaysia to Peru.
"Earlier in the season, wheat bulls were desperate for evidence that with supplies in other export origins running low, buyers were turning to the US as the origin of last resort," a US trader told Agrimoney.com.
"It looks like they have it in today's data, although it may be too late in the season to have any sustained effect."
Harvest has already begun in many more southerly wheat growing countries in the northern hemisphere, such as Egypt.
Separate data from the European Union showed the bloc's exports soft wheat exports at 247,000 tonnes, up from last week's 213,000 tonnes, but well below the weekly average of some 380,000 tonnes in 2012-13.
Target met
The US also sold, at more than 1.0m tonnes, more soybeans than investors had expected, old crop and new combined, with the total committed for 2012-13 now within 60,000 tonnes of the 36.74m tonnes the USDA has forecast for the whole season.
In soymeal, of which the US sold 256,000 tonnes for both the current and next marketing years combined, the 2012-13 total is now also within 60,000 tonnes of the USDA full-season estimate.
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