CHICAGO: Chicago wheat futures surged to a two-month high on Monday, as heavy world demand and worries about the global availability of high-protein wheat continued to extend market gains.

Soybeans were also firm, helped by renewed strength in the energy and vegetable oil markets.

The most-active soft red winter wheat contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.33% at $7.58-1/2 a bushel by 1602 GMT. It earlier reached $7.67, its highest since Aug. 16. The wheat rally has been fuelled by worries about global availability of high-protein wheat, pushing Kansas hard red winter wheat futures to their highest since 2014 and Minneapolis spring wheat futures to levels not seen since 2012.

Drought this year in major spring wheat production zones and brisk import demand have eroded stock levels, making the wheat market sensitive to potential supply setbacks.

Meanwhile, corn edged up to its highest in more than two weeks early in the session, with support from wheat futures and crude oil. But prices eased back as the session continued, as well-timed rains gave corn plantings in South America a boost and US weekly exports were lackluster, traders said.

The US exported 545,127 metric tonnes for the week ended Oct. 21 - down nearly 20% from the same period a year earlier, the US Department of Agriculture reported. Corn export inspections for the marketing year beginning Sept. 1 are at 4.71 million metric tonnes, down 23.6% from last year.

"Those corn inspections are less than half of what we need on a weekly average to hit USDA's export forecasts," said Karl Setzer, commodity risk analyst at Agrivisor.