Wheat rises 1 pct to one-week high on fresh demand signs

(Reuters) – U.S. wheat futures rose 1 percent on Wednesday, extending two-day gains to more than 5 percent, as signs of fresh demand drove prices to a one-week high. Corn rose, extending gains into a second session, while soybeans extended two-day gains to 3 percent.

Chicago Board of Trade March wheat was up 1 percent at $5.19 a bushel by 0308 GMT, just shy of its session peak of $5.19-1/2 a bushel, the highest since Jan. 28. Wheat closed up 4.3 percent on Tuesday.

“We’ve seen that for much of 2015, prices have come off quite a bit and they haven’t recovered to levels that we saw last year,” said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist, National Australia Bank.

“Obviously there is the supply picture, but I think some people were looking for bargains and they found them overnight.”

Egypt’s GASC on Tuesday bought 300,000 tonnes of Romanian and French wheat for shipment during the first half of March.

Saudi Arabia bought 690,000 tonnes of hard wheat via a tender, the country’s main state grain agency Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organisation (GSFMO) said on Monday.

Iraq issued an international tender to buy at least 50,000 tonnes of wheat to be sourced either from the United States, Canada, Australia or Russia, the trade ministry said on Tuesday.

March corn rose 0.52 percent to $3.87-3/4 a bushel, having advanced 4.4 percent in the previous session when prices marked $3.88-1/2 a bushel, the highest since Jan. 21.

March soybeans little changed at 9.87-1/4 a bushel. They firmed 2.9 percent on Tuesday when prices hit their highest since Jan. 15 at $9.99 a bushel.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s attache in Brazil cut the outlook for the Brazilian soybean crop due to drought.