Wheat steady near one-month high, soy eases again

PARIS/SYDNEY: Chicago wheat ticked higher on Wednesday to hold near a one-month high, while soybeans eased to their lowest in almost two weeks as investors weighed weather effects on spring planting and awaited the resumption of US-Chinese trade talks.

Corn edged lower as it consolidated below a one-month high struck at the start of the week.

The most active wheat futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade were up 0.3 percent at $4.70-1/2 a bushel by the end of the overnight trading session.

The contract had touched a one-month peak of $4.78 on Tuesday, supported by competitive US wheat offers in an Egyptian import tender and ongoing doubts over flooding disruption to US spring planting.

Egypt's state grains buyer said on Tuesday it bought 120,000 tonnes of US soft red wheat in an international purchase tender.

Snow covering much of North Dakota, the United States' biggest wheat-producing state, could mean a delay in planting spring wheat if there is a sudden thaw that could cause flooding.

The prospect of farmers switching some acreage from corn to later-planted soybeans because of waterlogged conditions has weighed on the soybean market ahead of US government planting estimates on Friday.

The run-up to Friday's US Department of Agriculture (USDA) planting report, which will be released along with quarterly grain stocks estimates, and a new round of US-Chinese trade discussions were encouraging a cautious mood.

"Traders wait for the USDA reports at the end of this week and/or a definitive headline out of the US/China trade negotiations with talks set to resume in China tonight," US brokerage Allendale said in a note.

A US trade delegation will begin a visit to China on Thursday for the next round of negotiations to resolve a trade dispute that has disrupted US soybean exports.

The most active CBOT soybean futures were down 0.5 percent at $8.96-1/2 a bushel, close to its earlier near two-week low of $8.96.

CBOT corn were down 0.7 percent at $3.74-1/2 a bushel.

Farmers from Missouri to South Dakota have seen their corn and soybean fields flooded as winter snow melts, a sign of what may be in store for North Dakota.