US grains rise

US grain futures edged higher on Tuesday in a rebound from multi-month lows, while Minneapolis wheat prices tumbled 4 percent on profit-taking. Prices rose in late trading as market participants bought back previously sold positions ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and abbreviated trading on Friday. The markets were due for a bounce after soyabeans reached a 13-month low, corn approached a seven-week low and wheat approached a five-month low, they said.
"We've been so relentlessly down," said Dave Marshall, an independent commodities broker in Illinois. Corn for December delivery ended up 1 1/4 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $5.99 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). December wheat gained 2 1/2 cents, or 0.4 percent to $5.94 a bushel. Soyabeans for January delivery rose 5 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $11.53 a bushel.
Still, spring wheat futures at the MGEX fell sharply as traders took profits after the market hit a five-month high. Traders were unwinding spread trades in which they were long MGEX wheat and short CBOT or Kansas City Board of Trade wheat, said Tregg Cronin, market analyst for Country Hedging, a brokerage in Minnesota. MGEX December wheat tumbled 36 1/4 cents, or 4 percent, to $8.60 1/4 a bushel, the biggest daily loss in nearly five months. "It's a little more surprising to see spring wheat down as much as it is when the other markets are basically flat," Cronin said.
A lack of fresh export demand limited gains in Chicago grains, analysts said. Users who want to build inventories of corn, soyabeans and wheat held off on making purchases, they said. Prices have been under pressure from concerns about the global and US economy, with European leaders still working on a resolution to the euro zone debt crisis. "If you take some of the uncertainty out of the market, some of these end users are going to look around and say this is a good deal," said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading, a commodities brokerage in Indiana.
Traders were keeping an eye open for sales of corn to China amid expectations that China may step into the market after corn prices dropped below $6 a bushel. "Corn's got a pretty good shot at people stepping up" to buy it, said Larry Glenn, broker and analyst for Frontier Ag, a brokerage in Kansas. Traders also were waiting for December corn and wheat options to expire Friday. In both markets, traders have "more options at the $6 strike, and that's where we're going to try to be," Gerlach said.