Soybeans, corn edge higher; improved US weather limits gains

SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean and corn futures rose on Monday as bargain buying after last week's steep losses supported prices, although gains were limited by forecasts of wet weather in key US growing areas.

Wheat added more than 1%.

"There are lot of cross currents at the moment which are pulling prices in different directions," said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank in Melbourne.

"US weather has improved but we think the downside is limited, given the demand."

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 1.2% to $12.85 a bushel, as of 0645 GMT, and corn gained 0.8% at $5.23-1/2 a bushel.

Wheat rose 1.3% to $6.48-1/2 a bushel.

Corn and soybean futures tumbled last week after the US Supreme Court made it easier for small oil refineries to win exemptions from a federal law requiring increasing levels of ethanol and other renewable fuels to be blended into their products, a major setback for biofuel producers.

The closely watched case could potentially make more corn and soybean supplies available for other uses.

The wheat market is facing headwinds as harvests gather pace across the Northern Hemisphere.

Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, started harvesting its 2021 grain crop on Wednesday with bright prospects for another year of large production.

Large speculators cut their net long position in CBOT corn futures in the week to June 22, regulatory data released on Friday showed.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and cut their net long position in soybeans.