Corn and soybean export sales surged in the latest week to keep year-to-date sales well above the previous year’s business, USDA said on Thursday.

The sales also beat trade forecasts by large margins and topped the paces needed to meet USDA's annual forecasts.

Weekly wheat sales were down from the previous week, missed trade forecasts in a Reuters' poll and were a little less than the pace needed to meet USDA's annual forecast. The sales however were enough to keep year-to-date business above a year ago.

In daily reporting on Thursday, USDA said 4.2 million bushels of 2016/2017 hard red winter wheat was sold to Morocco and nearly 9.5 million bushels of soybeans went to unknown destinations. Those sales will be added to a future weekly export report.

Corn sales totaled 81.1 million bushels, more than 2.5 times the previous week's, and were led by Mexico, Japan and Saudi Arabia. New-crop sales of 21.3 million bushels went to Mexico.

Soybean sales of nearly 80.1 million bushels were up 29% from the prior week and were led by China, unknown destinations and Indonesia.

The nearly 13.9 million bushels in wheat sales were down 34% from the prior week. The sales were led by Philippines, Japan and Thailand.

Chicago's crop futures markets had little reaction to the export numbers in the closing minutes of the overnight session. Soybean futures finished the overnight about 3 cents lower in nearby months, corn about a penny lower and wheat futures were 1 to 3 cents higher.

Old-crop soymeal export sales of 19,700 metric tons were down 9% from a week ago with El Salvador, Canada and the Dominican Republic the leading buyers.  The soymeal crop year concluded at the end of September. New-crop soymeal sales of 230,700 were up from a week ago and beat trade forecasts. The sales were led by Mexico, Canada and the Philippines.

Sorghum sales for the 2016/2017 crop year of nearly 200,000 bushels were down sharply from the prior week with Japan, and Nigeria the key buyers.

USDA exports - Sept. 29, 2016 - Corn sales drop, soybeans surge

USDA exports - Sept. 22, 2016 - Corn, wheat sales up, soybeans slip