US corn futures firmed slightly on Monday, edging up to their highest in nearly a month on a round of technical buying despite signs of poor demand, traders said. Soyabean futures were weaker, with traders waiting for concrete signs of progress in trade negotiations between the United States and China before buying into a beaten-down market.
"The grain trade begins a brand new month by once again trying to dig the continually-battered soyabean market out of a six-week, 85-cent free-fall, but buyers will be hard to come by with bears still feeding off a US-China stalemate," Matt Zeller, director of market information at INTL FCStone, said in a note to clients.
The wheat market also was trading in negative territory, with a mild round of profit-taking pressuring prices after the most active Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat contract hit a six-month high on Friday.
At 10:23 a.m. CDT (1623 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade March corn futures were up 1-1/2 cents at $3.82-3/4 a bushel, after finding technical support from overnight weakness at their 10-day moving average.
The most-active CBOT corn futures contract peaked at $3.84-3/4 a bushel, its highest on a continuous basis since Nov. 6.
Corn futures received additional support from a blizzard in the northwest US Midwest that stalled the already delayed tail end of corn harvest and threatened to force some farmers in that key production region to leave their crops standing until the spring.
CBOT March soft red winter wheat was 3-1/4 cents lower at $5.38-1/2 a bushel and CBOT January soyabeans were 2-3/4 cents lower at $8.74 a bushel.
The US Agriculture Department on Monday morning said that corn export inspections fell to 428,856 tonnes in the week ended Nov. 28, from 615,968 tonnes a week earlier. Analysts' forecasts had ranged from 500,000 tonnes to 700,000 tonnes.
Soyabean export inspections dropped to 1.545 million tonnes from 1.952 million tonnes, near the low end of trade expectations for 1.400 million tonnes to 2.000 million tonnes. Wheat export inspections of 246,968 tonnes were down from 434,703 tonnes a week earlier and below market forecasts that ranged from 400,000 tonnes to 600,000 tonnes.