Chicago Board of Trade soyabean, corn and wheat futures firmed on Wednesday, recovering from weakness in the overnight trading session on a round of technical buying, traders said. Corn futures staked out a fresh top, peaking at its highest since June 30 while wheat was trending near the 7-1/2 month high it hit earlier this week. Soyabeans were bouncing back from two days of declines that wiped out 1.3 percent of the most-active contract's value.
Buying by investment funds keyed the rebound from the overnight drop.
"They really do not want to press the short side," said Brian Hoops, analyst with Midwest Marketing Solutions. "There is dollars of upside potential and dimes of downside risk."
Traders have grown comfortable with the expectations for a bumper crop in South America and were waiting to see how weather for the US planting season would progress during the next two months before locking in profits from the recent rally.
A rally during the spring in 2016 also made traders wary of selling off their long positions, Hoops added.
At 10:42 am CST (1642 GMT), CBOT March soyabean futures were up 8-1/2 cents at $10.53-1/2 a bushel. The gains were kept in check by accelerating field work in key growing areas of Brazil. CBOT March corn was up 2-1/2 cents at $3.76-3/4 a bushel, just below its session peak of $3.77. Corn found support from early weakness after dipping to its weekly low of $3.71-3/4 a bushel. CBOT March wheat was 1-1/2 cents higher at $4.51 a bushel. A key technical support point for wheat was Tuesday's low of $4.46-1/4 a bushel.