(Reuters) – U.S. corn rose for a third consecutive session on Monday to trade near its highest since early July on buying from commodity funds.
Wheat edged lower as the market took a breather after climbing to a five-month peak in the last session, while soybeans edged higher.
“The corn market is very bullish because of short-covering and fund buying,” said Kaname Gokon, general manager of research at brokerage Okato Shoji in Tokyo. “Farmers are actively selling in this rally as the year-end approaches.”
The Chicago Board of Trade March corn contract had risen 0.5 percent to $4.09-1/2 a bushel by 0310 GMT, not far from Friday’s five-month high of $4.10 a bushel.
March wheat fell 0.1 percent to $6.05-3/4 a bushel after gaining more than 4 percent in the last two sessions and January soybeans added 0.5 percent to $10.52-3/4 a bushel.
Large speculators raised their net long position in CBOT corn futures in the week to Dec. 9, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
Funds bought an estimated net 18,000 corn contracts on Friday, as well as 4,000 soybean contracts and 5,000 wheat contracts, trade sources said.
Spot corn basis bids were mostly steady to weaker in the U.S. Midwest on Friday as rising futures prices sparked farmer selling.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed private sales of 110,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans for shipment to unknown destinations in the 2015/16 marketing year, which begins Sept. 1, 2015.
Traders got an unexpected early look at U.S. Farm Service Agency’s monthly prevented plantings report ahead of Friday’s close.
The report, which had been scheduled for release on Monday, showed slight increases in corn, soybean and wheat acres that could not be planted last spring.
Exporters of Russian wheat have cut prices to try to speed up sales abroad before the government possibly introduces curbs to replenish its own stocks and prevent rises in the cost of bread.
Russia’s grain exports are running at a record high, buoyed by a large crop and a sinking rouble which after dropping 40 percent this year against the dollar has made exports more profitable than domestic sales.
