US corn, soy, wheat futures bounce after sharp declines

CHICAGO: US corn, soybean and wheat futures rose on Monday, rebounding from Friday's sell-off spurred by a government report that showed massive supplies of all three commodities remained in storage bins around the country.

The most active Chicago Board of Trade corn futures contract  rallied 1.8 percent after posting its sharpest daily decline since July 2016 on Friday, with traders eyeing fresh forecasts that raised concerns about planting delays in the U.S. Midwest.

Soybean futures received support from optimism about a trade deal with China after the U.S. Agriculture Department said that private exporters reported the sale of 828,000 tonnes of soybeans to China.

It was the second sale announced since the two countries concluded their latest round of negotiations last week to end their trade war and comes ahead of the next round of talks, scheduled for this week in Washington with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He.

USDA on Monday morning also reported that weekly soybean export inspections were 730,806 tonnes, in line with market forecasts that ranged from 500,000 to 900,000 tonnes. Corn export inspections of 1.259 million tonnes topped analysts' expectations and wheat export inspections of 418,424 tonnes were in line with trade estimates.

At 10:33 a.m. CDT (1533 GMT), CBOT May corn futures were up 6 cents at $3.62-1/2 a bushel.

"You had some pretty good rain in some areas over the weekend," Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading in Indiana. "That is pushing the planting delay narrative."

There has been uncertainty over the scale of corn planting as flooding in the U.S. Midwest threatened to disrupt field work and push farmers to shift some acreage towards later-planted soybeans.

At least 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of U.S. farmland were flooded after a "bomb cyclone" storm left parts of nine major grain producing states under water, satellite data analysed by Gro Intelligence for Reuters showed.

Forecasts for more rain that will keep farmers out of the fields in southern areas that typically begin planting in early April underpinned corn prices.

CBOT May soybean futures were up 13-3/4 cents at $8.98 a bushel.

"A lot of it is some hopes here that we are getting near the end of the line on this U.S.-China thing," Gerlach said. "There was talk about progress being made."

CBOT May soft red winter wheat futures were 8-1/2 cents higher at $4.66-1/4 a bushel.