"There is not much that can be read into the moderate price movements today except that people are not taking risk ahead of the USDA report tomorrow and trade is thin," an analyst at one European bank said.

The USDA report on Thursday will give a much-watched forecast of which grains US farmers are likely to plant for the upcoming harvest and is likely to be critical for wheat, corn and soybean price development.

"The USDA numbers will give direction to the market," said Greg Smith, managing director of Global Commodities, adding the market expects higher corn acreage but lower soy and wheat area.

A poll showed that the US soybean area plantings for 2011 will be 76.870 million acres, down 534,000 acres from the 2010 acreage.