Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean futures climbed to two-week highs on Monday on concern about stressful weather in the United States and Europe, coupled with positioning ahead of a monthly US government crop report, traders said.
Wheat futures also advanced, following the firm trend. A setback in the US dollar index lent support to grains as well as other commodities, including crude oil.
At the CBOT as of 12:57 pm CDT (1757 GMT), corn for September delivery was up 14-1/4 cents at $3.87 per bushel. New-crop November soybeans were up 28-3/4 cents at $9.92 a bushel and September wheat was up 12-3/4 cents at $5.23-1/4 a bushel.
"It's a weather-related rally, both Europe and the US It's going to get really hot across the southern Plains and the Delta," said Roy Huckabay at the Linn Group, a Chicago brokerage.
In France, the farm ministry put this year's grain maize crop at 13.2 million tonnes, down 28 percent from a record 2014 harvest.
Traders were also adjusting positions ahead of the US Department of Agriculture's August 12 monthly supply/demand reports. Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect the USDA to lower its US yield forecasts for soybeans and corn.
Additional support in soybeans stemmed from hopes of stronger Chinese demand, contrasting with prevailing concern about a faltering Chinese economy, which has eroded many commodity prices.
China, the world's top soy buyer, is likely to import a record 76 million tonnes of the oilseed in the year ending September, up 8 percent from the previous year, according to the latest estimate from an official think tank.
It imported a record 9.5 million tonnes of soybeans in July, up 17.4 percent from 8.09 million tonnes in June, customs data showed on Saturday.
"Soybean prices began to rally in Asian hours after China reported a strong rise in soybean imports to all time highs in July," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey said in a market note.
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