Soybeans consolidate after 4-week top as focus turns to USDA report

• The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was down 0.1% at $8.49-3/4 a bushel.

PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago soybeans were little changed on Monday, consolidating below an earlier four-week high as attention turned to U.S. crop data that may provide more signals on the impact of Chinese imports and the coronavirus crisis on grain demand.

Corn futures inched up as the market remained supported by expectations of higher demand from China, but prices held below a near two-week high touched on Friday.

Wheat ticked lower after a near two-week top earlier in the day as traders assessed weather updates for northern hemisphere crops.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was down 0.1% at $8.49-3/4 a bushel by 1124 GMT.

Earlier in the session it rose to $8.58-1/2, its highest since April 13.

Grain markets are awaiting U.S. Department of Agriculture's May outlook on Tuesday, in which the USDA will update its U.S. and world estimates for the current 2019/20 season and give its first supply and demand projections for 2020/21.

The soybean market has been boosted by export purchases to China reported last week and news that U.S. and Chinese trade representatives discussed fulfilling a Phase 1 trade deal in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic that has sparked a row between the two countries.

Hopes that China will increase imports of U.S. farm goods have also lent support to corn prices after the market sank to a 10-year low last month.

"Soybeans and corn prices are supported by expectations of more Chinese buying after talks between Washington and Beijing," said Ole Houe, director of advisory services at brokerage IKON Commodities.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture will issue its first estimates for 2020/21 demand and supply tomorrow, so the bullish tone is unlikely to last as they will have to deal with the demand destruction."

CBOT corn was up 0.6% at $3.21 a bushel, as it trades near Friday's high of $3.23.

Corn has slid in recent weeks as measures to curb the novel coronavirus hammered energy markets, including ethanol biofuel that absorbs over a third of U.S. corn production.

"It probably doesn't take much in less bearish news to make markets move higher," Michael Magdovitz, commodity analyst with Rabobank, said.

"There is a glimmer of hope with China's buying interest."

The cold spell in the U.S. Midwest was also raising the risk of damage to freshly planted corn as well as developing soft wheat crops.

CBOT wheat ticked down 0.2% to $5.20-3/4 a bushel.

Russian consultancy SovEcon said rains that arrived in some parched regions were too late to avert crop damage in Russia, the world's top wheat exporter.