Chicago wheat rose for a sixth consecutive session on Wednesday, trading close to the last session’s two-month high, as adverse weather in key exporting countries raised supply concerns.
Soybeans edged lower on weaker oil prices and slowing demand in top importer China.
“There are definitely problems for the U.S. and spring wheat crops but we will get to know how big the problem is when the harvest starts, which is about two weeks from now for the U.S. spring wheat and Canada is about a month later,” said one Singapore-based trader, who sells U.S. wheat to millers in Asia.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade (CBOT) Wv1 climbed 0.5% to $7.04 a bushel by 0301 GMT, having climbed to a May 18 high of $7.18 a bushel on Tuesday.
Soybeans Sv1 lost 0.2% to $13.85-1/4 a bushel, while corn Cv1 rose 0.3% to $5.67-1/2 a bushel.
The wheat market is being underpinned by crop concerns in North America and the Black Sea region.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in a report released after Monday’s market close, rated 11% of U.S. spring wheat as good or excellent, down from 16% a week earlier and below analysts’ average estimate of 15%.
The USDA last week projected that U.S. spring wheat production would shrink to a 33-year low.
The agency left unchanged its good/excellent score for U.S. corn at 65%, short of an analyst consensus of 66%. It raised the soybean rating by 1 percentage point to 60%, in line with expectations.
China’s soybean imports from Brazil slipped in June from a year earlier, customs data showed on Tuesday, as poor crushing margins weighed on demand.
Declining soybean crush margins have hit China’s demand, which has been strong in recent months as the country’s recovering pig herd boosted consumption.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, soybeans, soyoil, wheat and soymeal futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said. COMFUND/CBT
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)