Investing.com – Corn futures advanced on Thursday, recouping a portion of the previous day’s steep decline that took prices to the lowest level since early October as risk sentiment improved following a well-received Spanish bond auction.
On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, corn futures for March delivery traded at USD5.8300 a bushel during European morning trade, gaining 0.45%.
It earlier rose by as much as 0.53% to trade at a daily high of USD5.8388 a bushel.
Agricultural commodities continued to be affected by outside influences after Spain’s Treasury sold EUR6 billion of medium-and-long-term bonds earlier in the day, far surpassing a target of EUR3.5 billion.
The country sold EUR2.5 billion of five-year bonds at an average yield of 4.02%, down sharply from 5.27% at a similar auction last month. Spain also auction EUR1.4 billion in ten-year bonds at a yield of 5.54%, compared to 6.97% at a November bond sale, a level widely viewed as unsustainable.
The well-received bond auction helped ease concerns over the health of the euro zone’s fourth largest economy.
Market sentiment has been hard hit in recent days by the view that last week's European Union summit did not result in concrete plans to tackle the debt crisis in the region.
Corn prices tumbled nearly 2.5% on Wednesday, after Italy was forced to pay euro-era high yields at an auction of five-year bonds and as concerns over a possible mass downgrade in the euro zone lingered.
However, the sharp decline triggered some bargain buying from traders reluctant to bet that prices would fall further amid concerns over corn crop conditions in Argentina and Brazil, the world’s second and third largest producers of the grain.
Weakness in the U.S. dollar also provided support. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.25% to trade at 81.05.
A weaker dollar boosts the appeal of U.S. crops to overseas buyers and makes commodities more attractive as an alternative investment.
Elsewhere on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, wheat for March delivery jumped 0.93% to trade at USD5.8638 a bushel, while soybeans for January delivery rose 0.7% to trade at USD11.0763 a bushel.
Later in the day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was to publish its weekly report on U.S. grain export sales.
On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, corn futures for March delivery traded at USD5.8300 a bushel during European morning trade, gaining 0.45%.
It earlier rose by as much as 0.53% to trade at a daily high of USD5.8388 a bushel.
Agricultural commodities continued to be affected by outside influences after Spain’s Treasury sold EUR6 billion of medium-and-long-term bonds earlier in the day, far surpassing a target of EUR3.5 billion.
The country sold EUR2.5 billion of five-year bonds at an average yield of 4.02%, down sharply from 5.27% at a similar auction last month. Spain also auction EUR1.4 billion in ten-year bonds at a yield of 5.54%, compared to 6.97% at a November bond sale, a level widely viewed as unsustainable.
The well-received bond auction helped ease concerns over the health of the euro zone’s fourth largest economy.
Market sentiment has been hard hit in recent days by the view that last week's European Union summit did not result in concrete plans to tackle the debt crisis in the region.
Corn prices tumbled nearly 2.5% on Wednesday, after Italy was forced to pay euro-era high yields at an auction of five-year bonds and as concerns over a possible mass downgrade in the euro zone lingered.
However, the sharp decline triggered some bargain buying from traders reluctant to bet that prices would fall further amid concerns over corn crop conditions in Argentina and Brazil, the world’s second and third largest producers of the grain.
Weakness in the U.S. dollar also provided support. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.25% to trade at 81.05.
A weaker dollar boosts the appeal of U.S. crops to overseas buyers and makes commodities more attractive as an alternative investment.
Elsewhere on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, wheat for March delivery jumped 0.93% to trade at USD5.8638 a bushel, while soybeans for January delivery rose 0.7% to trade at USD11.0763 a bushel.
Later in the day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was to publish its weekly report on U.S. grain export sales.