SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat rose for a fifth consecutive session on Monday, climbing to a one-week high as concerns over dry weather in the US southern Plains underpinned the market.
Soybeans bounced back after closing marginally lower on Friday, although gains were capped by the threat of a US-China trade war hurting demand for US cargoes.
The Chicago Board of Trade most-active wheat contract rose 0.5 percent to $4.62-3/4 a bushel by 0245 GMT, after hitting its highest since March 19 at $4.63-3/4 a bushel.
Soybeans gained 0.7 percent to $10.35-1/4 a bushel and corn advanced 0.7 percent to $3.80 a bushel.
The wheat market is finding support in dry weather in key US winter crop regions.
"US hard red winter (HRW) wheat crops remain at risk of falling yields," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "The HRW crop regions did get a little rain last week but not enough where it was most needed."
Soybeans closed marginally lower on Friday on worries about trade issues with China, the world's top soybean importer, a day after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods.
However, soybeans were not on China's list of American goods that could be subject to extra duties in response to US tariffs.
China is projected to import 97 million tonnes of soybeans in the 2017/18 marketing year and 100 million in 2018/19, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Those totals cannot be met by South American suppliers alone, analysts say, making it less likely that China would retaliate against US soybeans.
Soybean prices have drawn support from crop losses in drought-hit Argentina, the world's top soymeal exporter. The Buenos Aires grains exchange last week cut its estimate of the country's soy harvest to 39.5 million tonnes from 42 million tonnes previously.
The focus is shifting to US growing season. Farmers are likely to plant a record 91.5 million acres of soybeans in 2018 and 90 million acres of corn, according to a Farm Futures survey of nearly 1,400 growers released on Friday.
Large speculators cut their net long position in CBOT corn futures in the week to March 20, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their net short position in CBOT wheat and cut their net long position in soybeans.
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