Chicago Board of Trade wheat and corn futures firmed on Friday on light technical buying after both markets fell to the lowest levels in about a month, pressed by plentiful global grain supplies. Soyabeans also rose and were on track for a weekly gain of nearly 2 percent.
At the CBOT at 12:15 pm CDT (1715 GMT), May corn was up 3-1/4 cents at $3.79-1/2 per bushel. May wheat was up 1 cent at $4.95-1/2 a bushel, and May soyabeans were up 5 cents at $9.71 a bushel.
The bounce in wheat came despite the arrival of much-needed rains in the drought-hit US Plains. Storms since Thursday brought 0.25 to 1.5 inches of rain to the hard red winter wheat belt, with some local amounts near 2.5 inches in north-west Kansas and central Oklahoma. Showers were expected to continue this weekend.
"Overall, the vast majority of the HRW (hard red winter wheat) belt is seeing some much improved conditions," MDA Weather Services meteorologist Don Keeney said.
The storms had been widely anticipated and were already factored into prices. Front-month K.C. hard red winter wheat futures fell to a near five-year low this week, and CBOT May wheat was down roughly 46 cents, or 8.5 percent, from its April 2 high of $5.44-1/4.
Commodity funds hold a large net short position in CBOT wheat, limiting further declines and leaving the market open to bouts of short-covering. But poor export demand for US supplies continued to anchor prices.
CBOT corn rose to its highest level in more than a week but stayed well within the $3.70-to-$4 range it has occupied since January.
Soyabeans were up about 0.5 percent but rising world soya supplies hung over the market, limiting rallies.
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