SINGAPORE: US old-crop corn rose for a fourth straight session on Wednesday as tightening global supplies continued to underpin the market, while soybeans lost more ground, easing from seven-month highs.
Wheat futures slid around half a percent with crop-friendly weather in the United States and ample global supplies weighing on the market.
The grain and oilseed markets have rallied since the US Department of Agriculture painted a bullish picture on Friday, with US old-crop corn supplies at a five-year low and soybean plantings expected to be lower.
"Right now the situation is pretty much classified as consolidation after some of the strong gains we saw post USDA report," said Luke Mathews, commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
The low US corn inventory comes with the USDA's projection that US farmers will plant the largest corn area in 75 years, setting the stage for a record harvest and acting as a bearish influence for new-crop prices.
Chicago Board of Trade May corn rose 0.2 percent to $6.59-1/2 a bushel by 0337 GMT, while new-crop December corn dipped 0.2 percent to $5.44-1/2 a bushel.
Soybeans for May delivery were down half a cent to $14.16-1/4 a bushel, after climbing to a seven-month top of $14.34-1/4 on Tuesday and May wheat lost 0.5 percent to $6.55 a bushel.
The fast start to planting buoyed expectations of large corn seedings this year. USDA said on Monday afternoon that farmers had seeded 3 percent of their intended corn acreage as of April 1, matching the quickest start on record.
"In the US, we are seeing very strong plantings already under way in the corn complex and those plantings need to continue if we have to meet USDA's forecast," said Mathews.
The USDA forecasts farmers will plant 95.864 million acres with corn -- 1.1 million more than expected by traders.
The soybean market on Tuesday rallied to its highest since September on estimates of lower plantings in the US which follows poor supplies from South America after a drought in January.
The USDA in its quarterly report predicted farmers in the world's top soy producer, the United States, would plant 2 percent less acreage of the oilseed than expected.
Drought across the South American grain-belt curbed supplies in Brazil and Argentina, the world's second and third largest producers.
Drought in Brazil shrunk soybean crop to an estimated 65.2 million tonnes, down nearly 2 million tonnes from the March forecast of 67.1 million tonnes, local crop analysts Agroconsult said on Tuesday.
Argentina's biggest grains exchange slashed its forecast for soy production to 43.1 million tonnes as the extent of drought damage becomes clearer, especially in northern provinces.
Significant rainfall was being received in the US Plains this week, which will further boost growth and development of the hard red winter wheat crop.
The rain will spread eastward into the southern Midwest and Delta later in the week, helping the developing soft red winter wheat crop.
US winter wheat was rated 58 percent good-to-excellent as of April 1, compared with 37 percent a year ago, according to the USDA's weekly crop progress report issued on Monday afternoon.
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