CHICAGO: Chicago corn futures rose on Monday on short-covering and talk that China was in the market for US corn after futures fell to a seven-week low last week, analysts said.
Wheat rallied, bouncing from contract lows on Friday, but was capped by pressure from harvests in the Northern Hemisphere and position-squaring ahead of the US Department of Agriculture's US acreage and quarterly stocks reports on Tuesday.
Soyabean futures turned higher, following the firm trend.
By 12:19 p.m. CDT (1719 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) July corn was up 7 cents at $3.24 a bushel.
CBOT July wheat was up 13 cents at $4.87 a bushel and July soyabeans were up 3-1/2 cents at $8.68-1/2 a bushel.
Corn drew support from optimism about export demand.
"There are reports that China is in buying US corn this morning," said Jeff French, analyst with Top Third Ag Marketing. "We're definitely the cheapest corn in the world."
Traders also covered short positions ahead of Tuesday's USDA reports and the end of the month and quarter. Analysts expect the USDA to show a modest shift in US plantings from corn to soyabeans.
"We could see a decline in corn plantings, and a slightly higher soyabean planting, and it could end up being bearish for both," said Karl Setzer, analyst at Agrivisor.
However, favorable crop weather and expectations for large harvests hang over the market, capping rallies. Ahead of the USDA's weekly crop progress report later on Monday, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the government to rate 73% of the US corn crop as good to excellent, up from 72% a week earlier.
"The grain market moves on weather during the summer, not demand," said Mike Seery, president of Seery Futures. "If we got a drought, that would really help. But the last drought we had this late was 1983."
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