Wheat prices rise after deep losses, soybeans underpinned by weather concerns

SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat futures rose on Tuesday, with investors looking for bargains after prices slid almost 3 percent over the last two sessions on plentiful world supplies.

Soybean prices edged lower after climbing on Monday to their highest since Nov. 9, buoyed by concerns that dry weather in Argentina could crimp supply.

Record global wheat supplies are providing headwinds to US shipments.

"We have had two pretty miserable days for wheat trading," said Phin Ziebell, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.

"Fundamentally nothing has changed, every year production is hitting record highs. We are not going to see higher prices in such an environment."

The Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat contract added 0.4 percent to $4.29-3/4 a bushel by 0311 GMT, soybeans eased 0.3 percent to $9.93 a bushel and corn gave up 0.4 percent to $3.37-1/2 a bushel.

The US Department of Agriculture on Monday reported weekly wheat export inspections of 344,721 tonnes, in line with estimates for 200,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes.

US wheat export inspections are down 5.9 percent so far in this marketing year compared with 2016/17.

Russian wheat export prices fell slightly last week due to stronger competition in the international market.

Black Sea prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein content for December delivery were $190.5 a tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, down $0.5 from a week earlier, said agriculture consultancy IKAR.

Soybean prices are being supported by dry weather across Argentina.

Below-average rain in the first two weeks of December will complicate planting of late-sown corn and soybeans in most of Argentina's central grains belt, meteorologists told Reuters on Monday.

After abundant rains in the first half of the year, the southern hemisphere spring - which began in September - has brought lower-than-normal precipitation to the world's No. 3 corn and soybean exporter.

Commodity funds were net sellers of Chicago Board of Trade wheat, corn, and soyoil futures contracts on Monday, traders said. They were net buyers of soybean and soymeal futures.