Wheat, corn and soyabean edged higher on Tuesday, consolidating after falls linked to events in Japan, the Middle East and North Africa as markets awaited key US data to provide direction. Chicago Board of Trade May wheat rose 0.69 percent to $7.30-1/4 a bushel by 1149 GMT, CBOT May corn was up 0.37 percent to $6.73-1/2 a bushel, and May soyabeans were 0.63 percent higher at $13.57 a bushel.
"We fell a long way, and we're getting back towards more reasonable price levels," a European futures dealer said. European milling wheat futures were narrowly mixed, with front-month prices staying firm on a tight cash market but movements limited as operators awaited the US Department of Agriculture plantings report due to be published on Thursday.
Euronext's May milling wheat was up 0.75 euros or 0.31 percent at 243.00 euros a tonne, after rising earlier to 246.25 euros to test resistance at 245 euros. US wheat has consolidated within a range of $7.00-$7.50 in the past week, and the weather is going to take the lead after the US planting data, analysts said.
Wheat prices are being influenced by poor weather in many regions, particularly the US Great Plains, and expectations that the world wheat area will increase sharply in 2011, Luke Mathews, an agricultural commodity strategist with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a note. Analysts polled by Reuters expect US farmers to plant the second-largest area of corn since World War Two and the third-biggest acreage of soyabeans ever, in what could be the first big step toward easing global food prices.
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