SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean futures rose around half a percent on Thursday as strong global oilseed demand and shrinking supplies after a drought in South America continued to support the market.
Corn rose 0.4 percent, but the market has lost 3.7 percent so far this week, its second week of losses on expectations that US Department of Agriculture crop data on Friday will confirm farmers plan to plant the most corn since 1944.
"The corn market is a little bit bearish pricing in Friday's report as there are going to be more planted acres for corn," said Abah Ofon, commodities analyst at Standard Chartered in Singapore.
"For soybeans, the market realises that the demand is very robust with tightness in edible oil supply across the board."
Chicago Board of Trade May soybeans rose 0.6 percent to $13.75 a bushel by 0344 GMT, while May corn rose 0.4 percent to $6.23 a bushel. CBOT wheat for May delivery rose 0.6 percent to $6.34-3/4 a bushel.
Still, there was supportive news for corn with private Chinese importers buying some 360,000 tonnes of US corn for shipment in May and June in the first large purchase since late February.
Next on the radar for traders is a highly anticipated USDA data on grain inventories as of March 1.
Traders are nervous about the USDA's corn stocks estimate because it has not matched recently with industry projections, causing big swings in prices. Corn futures have tumbled by the daily trading limit on the day of the past three quarterly inventory reports.
The USDA will estimate corn inventories as of March 1 at 6.15 billion bushels, down from 6.523 billion a year earlier, and soybean inventories at 1.387 billion bushels, up from 1.249 billion a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.
Soybeans climbed to highest is six months on Monday as US farmers are expected only to raise plantings to 75.4 million acres from 75 million last year.
Crop forecasters have already slashed estimates for South America's soy harvests, increasing the need for a big crop in the United States.
AgRural this week cut its outlook for Brazil's soy crop to 66.7 million tones from 68 million.
Last week, Argentina's agriculture ministry reduced its soy harvest forecast to 44 million tonnes from a previous range of 43.5 million to 45 million. Paraguay will produce just half the amount harvested last year, according to the country's grains farmers' chamber.