PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat inched up on Thursday, while Paris futures set fresh contract highs as traders awaited a world crop report from the U.S. government for a gauge of harvest setbacks in major exporting zones.
Corn was little changed, while soybeans eased as market participants adjusted positions before the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) monthly world outlook, which also contains widely followed projections of U.S. corn and soy yields.
The most active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.2% at $7.28-1/4 bushel by 1114 GMT.
On Paris-based Euronext, benchmark December wheat also inched up 0.1% to 240.00 euros ($281.66) a tonne, after earlier setting a latest life of contract peak at 242.50 euros.
"Since the last WASDE publication a month ago, many of the crop forecasts of other market observers have been lowered," Commerzbank said, referring to the USDA's world crop report. "This concerns especially the wheat crops in Russia, the EU and the U.S., as well as the corn crop in Brazil."
Lower yields in Russia's harvest, drought damage to North American spring wheat and heavy rain during the European Union harvest have raised uncertainty about global export supplies.
Analyst firm Strategies Grains on Thursday lowered its forecast of European
Union soft wheat production this year by 1.5 million tonnes to 131.5 million, saying this could fuel a potentially "explosive" world supply outlook.
Two leading consultancies in Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter cut their estimates of the country's 2021 wheat crop due to dry, hot weather. CBOT soybeans were down 0.5% at $13.33-1/4 a bushel and corn 0.1% lower at $5.58-3/4 a bushel. Soybeans have been supported by a run of U.S. export sales to China. However, China has lowered its estimate of soybean imports in 2020/21 following a decline in crush margins, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Thursday.
The corn market is watching to see to what extent the USDA may cut its forecast of Brazilian production after drought and frost, and if will trim its U.S. yield outlook after mixed weather this summer.