Chicago corn rebounded on Wednesday as wider markets consolidated after a volatile start to the week and grain traders assessed mixed yield indications from an advancing U.S. corn harvest.
Wheat rose for the first time in three sessions, while soybeans turned higher after an earlier one-week low, as investors also adjusted positions in the run-up to closely watched U.S. grains stocks data on Thursday.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.9% at $5.37 a bushel by 1223 GMT.
The contract touched a four-week high on Tuesday, before falling back under pressure from a slide in equity markets and progress in the Midwest corn harvest.
However, caution over U.S. yields and delays to corn harvesting across Europe helped keep prices underpinned.
“Corn yields have been mixed across the U.S.,” consultancy Agritel said in a note, adding rain was holding up harvesting in Ukraine, another major exporter of the grain.
Traders are turning their attention to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Sept. 30 quarterly stocks and annual reports on small grains.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expect the government to report U.S. Sept. 1 corn stocks at 1.155 billion bushels, below the 1.187 billion bushels that the USDA projected in its last monthly supply/demand report on Sept. 10.
Sept. 1 soybean stocks were on average pegged at 174 million bushels, close to the 175 million bushels projected on Sept. 10.
A rise in the dollar index to its highest since last November has tempered U.S. export prospects, although there have been signs of a recovery in shipments on the Gulf Coast following recent storm disruption.
CBOT wheat Wv1 rose 1.3% to $7.16 a bushel, while soybeans Sv1 inched up 0.2% to $12.80 a bushel.
Rising prices in top exporter Russia and a run of tenders by importing countries, including Tuesday’s tender by Algeria in which it is thought to have booked around 500,000 tonnes, have lent support to wheat markets.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Mark Potter)