SINGAPORE: U.S. corn edged higher on Monday, with bargain-buying supporting prices after the market suffered its biggest one-day drop in nearly three years in the previous session due to pressure from ample supplies.
Soybeans rose on optimism over U.S.-China trade talks, while wheat slid for a third consecutive session.
The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) most-active corn contract rose 0.6 percent to $3.58-3/4 a bushel by 0259 GMT, after its biggest one-day fall since July 2016 on Friday.
Wheat lost 0.1 percent to $4.57-1/2 a bushel and soybeans gained 0.4 percent at $8.88 a bushel.
Massive supplies of both U.S. corn and soybeans remained in storage bins around the country ahead of spring planting, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data released on Friday showed.
In its quarterly stocks report, the USDA pegged domestic corn supplies as of March 1 at the third-biggest on record, wheat stocks were the second-largest in 31 years, and soybean stocks were the largest ever.
The USDA also said that farmers planned to boost their corn plantings, but severe flooding in the U.S. Midwest may curtail final acreage.
The government said U.S. farmers planned to plant 92.792 million acres of corn and 84.617 million acres of soybeans this spring. Its next acreage forecast is expected at the end of June.
"U.S. corn crop that develops normally from this level of planting will be huge," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy, Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "And that crop will be big enough to ease any nascent tightening in global feed grain balance sheets."
At least 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of U.S. farmland were flooded after a "bomb cyclone" storm left wide swaths of nine major grain producing states under water this month, satellite data analyzed by Gro Intelligence for Reuters showed.
Large speculators trimmed their net short position in CBOT corn futures in the week to March 26, 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 trimmed their net shortposition in soybeans.
Soybeans are drawing support from optimism that U.S.-China trade talks are progressing and after Chinese importers booked mtheir second large U.S. soy purchase this month.
China's State Council said on Sunday that the country would continue to suspend additional tariffs on U.S. vehicles and auto parts after April 1, in a goodwill gesture following a U.S. decision to delay tariff hikes on Chinese imports.
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