DES MOINES, Iowa (Agriculture.com)--Based upon strong demand, the CME Group soybean and wheat markets are seen higher, corn weaker Thursday.

The early calls for the commodities on Thursday, March 7, 2013, are mostly higher. Corn is seen opening 1-2 cents lower. Soybeans are seen 6-8 cents higher and wheat 2-4 cents higher.

In overnight trading, the May corn futures contract traded 1 cent lower at $6.87 per bushel. May soybean futures traded 5 cent higher at $14.71 per bushel, and May wheat traded 4 cents higher at $6.88. For March soybean meal futures, the contract traded $2.00 per short ton higher at $437.30. May soybean oil futures traded $0.03 cents higher at $50.29. 

The outside markets are favorable for Thursday's grain trade. The real factors driving the calls will be the mostly higher overnight markets.

Discuss the corn, soybean and wheat markets in Marketing Talk.

On Thursday, the USDA released bullish numbers for soybean and wheat markets in its Weekly Export Sales Report.

For U.S. corn sales, USDA estimates them at 156,600 metric tons vs. the trade's expectations of  500-700,000 metric tons (mt).

For soybeans, U.S. weekly exports totaled 1.382 million mt  vs. the trade's expectations of 700,000-1,100,000 mt.

U.S. wheat exports were estimated at 828,100 mt vs. the trade's expectations of at 300 to 600,000 mt.