Corn in Chicago rebounds for third straight day on demand for U.S. exports

By Cassandra Garrison

CHICAGO, March 16 (Reuters) – Chicago corn futures rose on Thursday on U.S. export demand, while wheat lost ground as traders awaited a renewal of a deal on Thursday. export of grain from the Black Sea, according to analysts.

* Soybeans, meanwhile, fell.

* The US Department of Agriculture announced sales to China of 641,000 tonnes of US corn, bringing total confirmed sales over the past three days to 1.92 million tonnes. Some traders expect the USDA to report sales of another 600,000 tonnes of US corn before the end of the week.

* The USDA also reported weekly export sales of US corn, soybeans and wheat, in line with expectations.

* The most active corn contract on the Chicago Stock Exchange (CBOT) rose 0.4% to $6.29 a bushel at 3:30 p.m. GMT. Deferred corn contracts were trading lower. Meanwhile, wheat was down 1.57% at $6.92 a bushel and soybeans were down 0.45% at $14.8250 a bushel.

* Caution reigned in grain markets, given the recent turmoil in financial markets following the failure of two US banks.

* Major Wall Street stock indexes rose in volatile trade on Thursday as investors remained nervous about the economic outlook despite the Swiss central bank’s lifeline for struggling Credit Suisse bank.

* “We thought we were going to have a little more stability today after hearing about the Swiss bank intervention. Honestly, since the open everything is a little softer,” said broker Craig Turner. in commodities at Daniels Trading.

* Traders were more optimistic that the deal allowing grain shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports could be extended before the deadline expires later this week, although questions remain over whether the extension will be 60 or 120 days.

* The soybean market continued to weigh drought-induced losses in Argentina against harvest progress from what is expected to be a record crop in Brazil.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Chicago, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore, editing in Spanish by Manuel Farías)