CHICAGO: Chicago soyabean futures inched slightly higher on Tuesday on technical trading, keeping prices at near multi-month highs, as dry weather in South America continued to spark concerns over supplies. Wheat prices edged lower, extending losses from the previous session, on disappointing exports. Corn futures also eased early in the session, as some market players saw prices overextended to the up-side.

The Chicago Board of Trade’s most-active soyabean contract rose 0.11% to $13.73 a bushel as of 1611 GMT, heading for a tenth straight session of gains. Corn slipped 0.45% to $6.12 per bushel. Soyabean and corn crop harvests are expected to be smaller in southern Brazil this season as fields are suffering from dryness, weather forecasters and consultancies said.

But parts of central and southeastern Brazil may see some “limited relief” from rain later this week, Commodity Weather Group said on Tuesday. “It’s still early in the growing season, and the crops can recover, which is why the grain markets are back-pedaling a bit,” said Karl Setzer, commodity risk analyst at Agrivisor. “If this (dryness) continues through January, that’s when it becomes much more of a problem for the soyabean crop.”

Wheat fell 2.08% to $7.87-1/4 a bushel as traders pointed to last week’s disappointing US export inspections and a lack of competitiveness, particularly with Russia, despite export taxes.

The US Department of Agriculture on Monday said 271,349 tonnes of US wheat was inspected for export last week, which was on the low end of a range of trade estimates. The agency also upwardly revised the prior week’s wheat inspections total by more than 14,000 tonnes.