US wheat futures rose on Monday on a fresh round of export business coupled with forecasts for more frigid crop weather this week in the United States, but prices stayed below last week's 2-1/2-year highs. Corn climbed to a near-31-month top but reversed to close lower as traders took profits, with spillover weakness from a breakdown in crude oil lending pressure. Soybeans also turned lower after early gains.
Wheat rallied after Egypt bought US wheat in a weekend purchase, along with cargoes from Australia and Argentina. The deal marked the return of the world's top wheat importer to the market after a month-long absence during anti-government protests. Wheat tenders issued by Iraq, Algeria, Turkey and Bangladesh promised more sales.
"We sold wheat to Egypt - I think that's positive, and there are more weather concerns about the possibility of winterkill. That's catching a lot of attention and has put money back on the wheat," said Bill Nelson, an analyst with Doane Advisory Services in St. Louis.
Temperatures in the southern US Plains were expected to fall to zero to minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 to minus 23 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday morning, Telvent DTN meteorologist Mike Palmerino said, raising a renewed threat to crops in western areas that may lack snow cover. "There still is not a lot of good news. We still have subzero cold coming in, (and) we still have little in the way of precipitation," Palmerino said.
Traders are closely monitoring the dormant US Plains crop amid tight global supplies of high-quality milling wheat. Crop condition ratings in key state Kansas have been poor this season amid scarce soil moisture. CBOT March wheat settled up 5 cents at $8.58-3/4 per bushel. March corn ended down 3-3/4 cents at $6.74-3/4 a bushel, after reaching $6.82-1/2, the highest spot corn price since July 2008. March soybeans fell 9 cents cents to end at $14.24-1/2 a bushel.