US CIF Gulf corn and soyabean basis values were mostly steady on Monday, with farmers nearing completion of the harvest after a busy weekend.
Barge freight rates were mostly steady on the Illinois, lower Ohio and lower Mississippi rivers, traders said. There were expectations for rates to rise as movement picks up.
"It was a heavy harvest weekend," a river trader said, adding that he was expecting farmers to haul their newly harvested soyabeans to his elevator this week.
"It seems like everything that can be filled on farm has been filled," he said, adding that his elevator bought about 400,000 bushels of corn and soyabeans over the weekend.
Traders said wheat basis values were mostly steady, with the markets disappointed with results of a weekend tender.
Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities bought 60,000 tonnes of US soft white wheat and 60,000 tonnes of Australian hard wheat at its tender for December 1-10 shipment.
Traders had hoped Egypt, one of the world's top wheat importers, would buy soft red winter or hard red winter wheat at the tender.
In routine business, Israel set a tender for Wednesday to buy 27,000 tonnes of feed wheat of European origin for December-January shipment.
The grain market continued to monitor developments in the spread of bird flu, with a Thai woman testing positive for the disease. Traders said any mass culling of poultry in Asia due to the deadly disease could affect US grain exports.