CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade wheat and corn futures notched tepid gains on Tuesday on bargain buying after sharp declines following bearish crop data released late last week by the US Department of Agriculture.
"We got oversold and have exhausted the selling for now. With the holiday and weekend coming up I think everyone was just evening their positions," said Shawn McCambridge, analyst for Jefferies Bache.
Markets will be closed on Thursday for the US Independence Day holiday.
The volume was very thin in all markets, with funds buying an estimated net 3,000 corn contracts but were even in soybeans, wheat, soymeal and soyoil.
Soybeans were mixed with old-crop July firm on tight stocks of soy and new-crop November soybeans eased on good US crop weather.
Old-crop July corn jumped 2.5 percent on tight stocks of corn. The CBOT July contracts are thinly traded and are in delivery status.
"July corn is more of a delivery issue, we have tightness in the cash market, we have had no deliveries and probably won't have any as tight as the cash market is," McCambridge said.
CBOT September corn was up 1-1/2 cents per bushel at $5.33, August soybeans were down 2-3/4 cents per bushel at $14.33-1/2 and September wheat was up 3-1/4 at $6.58-1/2.
"Wheat was oversold but any upside will be severely constrained," said Sterling Smith, market specialist for Citigroup.
CBOT wheat inched upward after falling for 8 consecutive trading sessions and December new-crop corn, though trading firm, still was floundering near a 2-1/2 year low as an improving crop outlook kept the market on the defensive.
US corn and soybean crops improved in the last week, aided by warmer weather, although heavy storms damaged crops in parts of the northern Midwest, the US Department of Agriculture and state reports said.
The USDA rated 67 percent of the US corn and soybean crops in good to excellent condition, both up from 65 percent a week earlier.
Don Keeney, meteorologist for MDA Weather Services told the Reuters Global Ag Forum on Tuesday that current weather forecasts indicate record large US corn and soybean production this year.
"The supply situation looks very bright as the acreage topped market expectations and the crop condition is improving," said Joyce Liu, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
"We probably need some adverse crop weather or a sudden increase in demand to prop up prices. Otherwise, it is likely to remain range bound," Liu added.
Moderate temperatures and occasional rainfall over the next two weeks will give newly sown US corn and soybeans a big growth boost, an agricultural meteorologist said on Tuesday.
"It looks good the next couple of weeks. It will be cool until Friday then warm to the 80s (degrees Fahrenheit) to low 90s and everybody will get some rain," said Andy Karst, meteorologist for World Weather Inc.
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