Wheat futures higher on bargain buying; corn firm, soy mixed
Run of importer demand helps counter harvest pressure in wheat
Corn, soybeans edge away from 2020 lows as weather watched
Recasts with U.S. trading, adds analyst comments, changes dateline from PARIS/SINGAPORE
By Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO, July 17 (Reuters) -U.S. wheat futures rose about 1.5% on Wednesday on bargain buying one day after a drop in prices to four-month lows appeared to spur fresh export business, traders said.
Corn futures firmed while soybeans were mixed as both markets hovered near their lowest levels in nearly four years.
As of 12:47 p.m. CDT (1747 GMT), benchmark wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade Wv1 were up 9-3/4 cents at $5.40-1/2 per bushel, a day after falling to $5.25-1/4, the lowest on a continuous chart of the most-active contract since March 11.
CBOT corn Cv1 was up 3-1/4 cents at $4.12 a bushel. Most-active November soybeans Sv1 were down 1 cent at $10.42-1/4 a bushel, while the front-month August soybean contract SQ24, representing the 2023 harvest, was up 5-1/2 cents at $10.96.
Wheat's rebound reflected a flurry of global export deals. Algeria’s state grains agency bought about 600,000 metric tons of milling wheat in an international tender, European traders said. And Egypt's state buyer booked 770,000 metric tons of mostly Russian wheat on Tuesday, its biggest single purchase since 2022.
Asian wheat buyers, meanwhile, have stepped up purchases in recent weeks, taking cargoes from the Black Sea region.
"End users see some value at these price levels," StoneX chief commodities economist Arlan Suderman said in a client note.
A decline in the dollar .DXY lent support to CBOT futures, in theory making U.S. grains more competitive globally.
CBOT corn inched higher but generally favorable crop weather in the Midwest hung over the market, capping rallies by bolstering expectations for large U.S. harvests. The corn crop is in the midst of pollination, its key reproductive phase.
"The month of July as a whole is expected to end up wetter than normal across most of the Corn Belt ... which will be quite favorable for development of corn and soybeans," satellite technology company Maxar said in a daily weather note.
Farmers in scattered areas are still assessing crop damage from severe storms and strong winds that raked the Midwest on Monday, Maxar noted.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday rated 68% of the U.S. corn and soybean crops in good to excellent condition, unchanged from the previous week and the highest for this time of year since 2020.
Reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago
Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore
Editing by Matthew Lewis
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