By Michael Hirtzer
CHICAGO, Oct 1 (Reuters) – U.S. corn and soybeans edged
narrowly higher on Wednesday as investors covered short
positions after prices fell to multiyear lows earlier in the
session and while rains stalled record harvests in the
Midwestern crop belt.
Wheat futures also were higher, stabilizing after their
four-year low reached last week. The gains followed the U.S.
Agriculture Department’s largely bearish quarterly stocks and
small grains summaries that were released on Tuesday.
“There’s no trigger (for higher prices) other than you have
the crop report behind you,” said analyst Roy Huckabay of the
Linn Group Chicago brokerage. “I don’t see anything coming in
the Oct. 10 (USDA) report that’s not going to be bearish, but
when you’re down so hard, there’s fewer sellers.”
Most-active Chicago Board of Trade December corn was
up 1 cent at $3.21-3/4 per bushel as of 12:35 p.m. CDT (1735
GMT) after falling to $3.18-1/4, the lowest level since
September 2009.
CBOT November soybeans were up 2-1/4 cents at
$9.15-1/2, rebounding from their session low of $9.04, the
lowest since Feb. 4, 2010.
Substantial rain fell in the western Corn Belt on Tuesday
while more showers were likely this week and during the
following six to 10 days, delaying fieldwork, the Commodity
Weather Group said in a note to clients.
“Corn is trading near its daily high on talk of rains
slowing harvest progress over the next few days in the face of a
stronger dollar and weaker outside markets,” said analyst Brad
Metzger of Futures International in Chicago.
Plentiful global grain stockpiles and a rising dollar that
made U.S. supplies less competitive in international markets
continued to anchor corn, soybean and wheat prices. Each
commodity capped large quarterly and monthly declines during the
previous session.
CBOT wheat was up 3-1/4 cents at $4.81 per bushel,
rebounding after the contract’s worst monthly loss since 2011.
Wheat rose despite U.S. shippers’ missing out on a tender to
sell grain to top importer Egypt, whose main buying agency
instead purchased 120,000 tonnes from France.
(Additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago, Michael
Hogan in Hamburg and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by
Keiron Henderson and Lisa Von Ahn)