Spot corn basis bids were steady to firmer in the US Midwest Monday and soyabean sales were quiet, while corn bids were unchanged and some locations were seeing scattered corn movement, dealers said.
Indiana and Illinois crushers boosted spot soyabean bids 3 cents to spur farmer selling, and Nebraska elevators firmed soyabean bids a penny to stimulate movement into their storage facilities. But soyabean sales stayed slow after a week of lacklustre soyabean futures activity.
Most dealers were following overnight trading numbers after CBOT March soyabeans climbed 8-3/4 cents to $8.48 a bushel on e-cbot. But bullish farmers awaited the CBOT futures market opening before selling soyabeans.
CBOT March corn climbed nearly 2 cents in overnight trading, and some locations were seeing scattered corn sales.
"There's a little corn moving with the overnights up, but they're still tucking beans away and waiting for $9," one Illinois dealer said.
Grain deliveries were hampered by weekend snow and some snow early Monday that made transportation difficult.
"There's still snow on the ground everywhere so they don't want to mess around hauling anything yet," one southern Ohio dealer said.
River corn bids were a penny firmer and river soyabean bids were down 3 cents. CIF values at the US Gulf were steady for both corn and soyabeans early Monday.
CBOT soyabeans were called to open 7 to 9 cents higher as hot and dry weather in Argentina and southern Brazil led to concerns about potential cuts in this year's South American soyabean production, traders said.
CBOT corn was expected to open 1 to 2 cents higher on spill-over support from the expected gains in soyabeans and on continued tight stocks of soyabeans, traders said.
Soft red winter wheat basis bids were holding firm on Monday and farmer selling was quiet, dealers said.
CBOT wheat was called to open 2 to 3 cents lower on pressure from weekend news that Egypt's GASC bought only 60,000 tonnes of US soft white wheat, traders said.