U.S. soybean, corn futures rise after two losing sessions

CHICAGO: U.S. corn and soybean futures rose on Tuesday, bouncing back from two days of declines on some bargain buying by investment funds and concerns about tight supplies of both commodities, traders said.

Wheat futures also were firm, with concerns about dry conditions limiting U.S. and European production underpinning prices.

Corn and soybean futures found support at key technical points during overnight trading, sparking the gains.

"We go up and down here primarily off of money flow," said Greg Grow, director of agribusiness at Archer Financial Services. "Hard breaks are continued to be looked at as buying opportunities."

At 10:31 a.m. CDT (1531 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade May corn futures were up 12 cents at $5.81 a bushel and CBOT May soybeans were 10-3/4 cents higher at $13.92-1/2 a bushel.

New-crop contracts also were firm, with traders saying big harvests of both crops were needed to satisfy the demand from domestic and export sectors.

"The job of the market is to incentivize farmers to expand acreage over the next 45 days," StoneX chief commodities economist Arlan Suderman wrote in a client note.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said U.S. farmers were able to plant 4% of their intended corn acreage as of Sunday, below the range of analyst estimates in a Reuters poll.

The USDA also said the U.S. winter wheat crop was rated 53% good to excellent, unchanged from a week earlier and in line with market expectations.

CBOT May wheat was up 5-1/4 cents at $6.33-1/4 a bushel.

"Risks on the future crop related to weather conditions are still high. Experts are predicting a dry spell in coming weeks in the European continent.

The water deficit is already in place on U.S. spring wheat areas in the north of the country," French consultancy Agritel said in a note.