PARIS/CANBERRA: Chicago grain futures were little changed on Wednesday, with corn and soybean consolidating below two-week highs, as the market weighed a dry spell in part of North America against sizeable global supplies.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.4% at $10.71-1/4 a bushel by 1144 GMT, easing from Tuesday’s high of $10.86-3/4.

CBOT corn inched up 0.1% to $4.17-3/4 a bushel, holding close to Tuesday’s peak of $4.22-1/2. CBOT wheat edged up 0.2% to $5.43-3/4 a bushel after falling a day earlier.

Prices of all three crops remain near their lowest since 2020 after investors anticipating ample supply amassed large net short positions in recent weeks.

A shift to hot, dry conditions in a swathe of Canada and the United States, plus a reassessment of Donald Trump’s chances of regaining the US presidency following incumbent Joe Biden’s decision to quit the race, spurred short-covering this week.

But despite the coming hot and dry weather in part of the US Midwest, conditions for soy and corn look pretty good, said Dennis Voznesenski, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank in Sydney.

Arid conditions in corn-producing belts in the Black Sea region were also unlikely to puncture expectations of ample supply, he said, with South American producers shipping large amounts of corn and soy.

“It’s hard to see a very supportive market in the near term,” he said.