(Reuters) – Chicago soybeans rose half a percent on Tuesday to snap a two-session losing streak, supported by the slow pace of harvesting in the United States and as dryness delayed planting in Brazil.
Corn edged higher, tracking gains in soybeans, while wheat was little changed ahead of a tender by the world’s top importer Egypt to buy the grain from global suppliers.
Chicago Board of Trade front-month soybeans had added 0.5 percent to $9.49-1/4 a bushel by 0215 GMT, after dropping more than 2 percent in the last two sessions. Corn rose 0.4 percent to $3.49-1/2 a bushel.
Spot-month wheat was little changed at $5.13-3/4 a bushel, having finished 0.5-percent lower the day before.
“If you look at the USDA crop report, the harvest is still behind schedule although it has picked up a little bit, and the weather probably does look more supportive for the harvest to keep gathering steam,” said Paul Deane, an agricultural economist at ANZ Bank in Melbourne.
“Then you have Brazil planting delays and I think that is probably the bigger issue the market will be concerned about.”
U.S. framers have harvested 53 percent of their soybean crop, up from 40 percent a week ago but still below five-year average of 66 percent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its weekly crop report.
The corn harvest was 31 percent complete, compared with 24 percent a week ago and below the five-year average of 53 percent.
Traders had expected the corn harvest to be 33 percent complete and the soybean harvest to be 55 percent over.
Forecasts for mostly dry conditions across the grain belt pressured prices on Monday. Corn and soybeans rallied last week on concerns about wet weather slowing the harvest of a record U.S. crop.
Brazil’s soy planting is 10 percent complete for the 2014-15 crop, the slowest for this time of year since the 2008-09 season, local consultancy AgRural said on Monday.
Planting advanced just three percentage points from the previous week after a long dry spell in many areas made the soil too dry to continue field work, and seeds that were already planted may have to be resown.
Investors in the wheat market are awaiting the result of Egypt’s latest tender to see if U.S. wheat is competitive enough to win business.
Egypt’s General Authority for Supply Commodities set a tender on Monday to buy an unspecified amount of wheat from global suppliers for shipment from Nov. 21 to 30. The result is likely on Tuesday.
U.S. wheat faces competition for export business on the world market, with Egypt buying 175,000 tonnes of French and Russian wheat in its last international wheat purchase on Oct. 10.
