PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago soybeans were poised for their first weekly rise in three weeks, hovering near the previous session's three-week high on Friday, supported by dry weather in Brazil's key producing regions.
Corn futures were on track for a second week of gains. The market was underpinned by strong demand, though abundant global supplies capped the advance.
Wheat was up for a second day but the overall price move over the week was little changed.
The Chicago Board Of Trade's most-active soybean contract jumped 2.2 percent this week after closing lower for the past two. On Thursday the market had climbed to $10.00-1/2 a bushel, the highest since Oct 13. By 1154 GMT on Friday it was down 0.25 percent at $9.96-3/4.
Corn is up half a percent this week, the second straight weekly gain, with wheat only just in positive territory with a 0.05 percent gain.
The US Department of Agriculture on Thursday confirmed 1,356,360 tonnes in US corn sales to Mexico for shipment in the current and next marketing year. That followed news of several corn purchases by South Korean importers.
Cereals markets are likely to be balanced in 2017/18, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said, forecasting that global production would surpass last year's record harvest by a small margin.
"The FAO forecasts were corn-friendly, as was news of hefty US corn exports to Mexico," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
"(For soybeans) Brazil's Mato Grosso region remains on the market's watch list."
Strong demand continues to underpin soybean futures.
Chinese imports of oilseeds are forecast to grow to a record 99.8 million tonnes in 2017/18, up 1.3 million tonnes from the previous season, according to a report issued by the USDA's attache in China.
Private analytics firm Informa Economics raised its estimate of the US 2017 corn yield to 173.4 bushels per acre (bpa), from its previous monthly estimate of 170.5 bpa, three trade sources said.
The firm trimmed its US 2017 soybean yield estimate to 49.7 bpa from 50 bpa.
Commodity brokerage INTL FCStone raised its corn yield estimate to 173.7 bpa from 169.2 bpa previously.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT soybean, corn, wheat and soymeal futures contracts on Thursday and net sellers in soyoil, traders said.
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