PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat traded flat on Wednesday, as the market tried to find a footing after a one-month low linked to a higher than expected US acreage estimate and record global supplies.
Soybeans eased after rising to a one-week high in the previous session on concerns over dryness in Argentina, with traders assessing rain prospects there for the week ahead.
Corn ticked higher to hold onto short-covering gains from a day earlier, although a stronger dollar and weakness in soybeans curbed prices.
The Chicago Board Of Trade most-active wheat contract was unchanged on the day at $4.16-1/2 a bushel by 1226 GMT, having dropped on Tuesday to $4.13-1/4 a bushel, the lowest since Dec. 13, 2017.
The wheat market was still feeling the effects of last Friday's US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimate of 2018 US winter wheat plantings.
While the figure marked a lowest winter wheat acreage in more than a century, it was above a range of analyst estimates and seen as too modest a decline to revive a market burdened by record global inventories.
"US wheat farmers are losing money but they seem to be still planting wheat," said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank. "Wheat prices are unlikely to recover much unless fundamentals change."
Broadly favourable growing conditions so far for winter wheat in the Black Sea region, including Russia, also pointed to more ample international supplies next season.
Signs of additional demand after the recent price drop lent some support to wheat prices, traders said, although reaction was tempered by the continuing export edge of Black Sea origins.
US wheat was not among the offers in a tender on Tuesday from top wheat importer Egypt, which bought 295,000 tonnes of Russian supplies.
CBOT soybeans gave up 0.2 percent to $9.66-1/4 a bushel, while corn inched up 0.1 percent to $3.48-1/2.
The soybean market is being underpinned by dry weather in Argentina, although favourable growing conditions in Brazil have boosted hopes of a bumper crop there.
Traders were weighing up evolving rain forecasts for Argentina, with projections for some light showers in the week ahead in the Pampas farm belt.
A rebound in the dollar, as it recovered from a new three-year low against the euro earlier on Wednesday, also curbed CBOT prices.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, soybean and soymeal futures contracts on Tuesday, and net sellers of wheat and soyoil futures, traders said.
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