By Michael Hirtzer
CHICAGO, March 23 (Reuters) – U.S. soybean, corn and wheat
futures climbed 1 percent or more on Monday, extending gains
from late last week as the dollar weakened and investors covered
short positions.
Dry weather in Russia and southern U.S. Plains growing areas
also underpinned wheat prices while corn futures climbed above
several key moving averages, lending technical support. But
prices pared gains late after the higher futures triggered light
selling by U.S. farmers, analysts and brokers said.
“With the dollar lower again, the main feature is
follow-through fund buying from Friday,” said Terry Reilly,
analyst at brokerage Futures International in Chicago. “Gold and
crude oil are turning around, adding to the bullish situation in
corn.”
Chicago Board of Trade May soybeans finished 8-3/4
cents higher at $9.83-1/2 per bushel while CBOT corn was
up 5-1/4 cents at $3.90-1/4, Each contract touched the highest
levels in more than a week, with corn capping its largest
two-day gains since late in November.
CBOT May wheat gained 4-1/2 cents to $5.34, with the
contract rising to the highest levels in a month and forming a
‘gap’ on the chart between Friday’s high of $5.30-1/2 and
Monday’s low of $5.31-3/4.
Investment funds bought 8,000 corn contracts, 6,000 soybean
contracts and 3,000 wheat contracts, trade sources said.
“The weather is not all that favorable for wheat crops as we
have seen limited rainfall in Russia, and U.S. winter wheat is
also suffering from dry weather,” said Kaname Gokon, general
manager of research at brokerage Okato Shoji in Tokyo.
U.S. wheat plants have faced a lack of moisture plus severe
cold spells this winter, despite some showers in recent days.
The Plains revert to a drier pattern for the next 10 days,
with only patchy relief from a few showers in the 11-to-15-day
outlook, the Commodity Weather Group said.
Russia’s 2015 grain crop may fall short of official
forecasts as the condition of winter grains in some key growing
regions has deteriorated since last year, the managing director
of a large Russian agricultural group said.
Investment funds had built up short positions in wheat, corn
and soybeans at the beginning of the month as export demand for
U.S. supplies waned and the dollar rose to its highest in more
than a decade. “Short-term oriented market participants may have
facilitated the price surge by covering shorts,” Commerzbank
said in a note.
(Additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris and
Naveen Thukral in Singapore; editing by David Evans, James
Dalgleish and Tom Brown)