Chicago wheat rises after heavy losses in past five weeks

Chicago wheat rose more than 1 percent on Monday in a second day of gain on bargain buying after falling for the last five weeks, while soybeans recovered from last week's 2-1/2-month low, underpinned by tight old-crop supplies in the United States. Corn was also higher but still capped by crop-friendly weather in the US Midwest grain belt that bolstered expectations for a large autumn harvest.
Chicago Board of Trade front-month wheat rose 1.45 percent to $5.94-1/2 a bushel by 1107 GMT after gaining 0.1 percent on Friday. "Traders are coming back in the market after the significant losses recorded last week," one European trader said. Wheat fell to its lowest since late February last week, in Chicago and Paris, pressured by an accelerating Northern Hemisphere harvest and abundant global supplies, despite expectations for a smaller US hard red winter wheat crop.
Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, has bought around 3.65 million tonnes of domestic wheat so far and will stop buying local supplies on June 20, the Supplies Ministry said on Sunday. Australian farmers are holding back new-crop wheat sales on fears an El Nino weather pattern will slash yields, though their cautious approach means they risk losing sales to aggressive European rivals in Asian markets.
Front-month soybeans rose 0.5 percent to $14.32-1/4 a bushel, adding to a 0.7 percent gain on Friday. But new-crop beans gave up 0.15 percent, falling for three out of four sessions on expectations of ample supplies next year. "Soybeans are battling with old-crop tightness compared with a loose new-crop balance sheet," said Brett Cooper, senior manager for markets at FCStone Australia.
"The crush pace has been very strong this year but planting has been good and new-crop export business has been pretty quiet so far, so there is nothing particularly bullish about US beans." The National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) on Monday is expected to estimate the US soybean crush in May at 126.984 million bushels, according to a Reuters poll.
The US Department of Agriculture on Thursday cut its forecast for US 2013/14 end-stocks to 125 million bushels, a 10-year low. Analysts noted that the marketing-year-to-date crush was above a year earlier and processors will need to cut back significantly this summer to meet the government's crushing estimate.