Chicago Board of Trade corn futures rose nearly 2 percent early on Friday, reversing three days of declines on strong cash markets as farmers focused on planting their 2013 crop rather than selling in the cash market, traders and analysts said.
Wheat turned lower for the third day in a row on technical selling and crop-friendly rains in key wheat growing areas of the United States, Australia and the Black Sea. Soyabeans gained for the second consecutive trading session on tight stocks of soya, strong cash markets and tepid farmer selling.
At 10:44 am CDT (1544 GMT), CBOT July corn was up 10-1/4 cents per bushel at $6.51-3/4 per bushel, July wheat was down 5-3/4 at $6.82 and soyabeans for July delivery rose 8-1/2 cents per bushel to $14.36 per bushel. The record slow pace of US corn planting due to excessive wet weather in April and May is keeping the corn market strong due to concerns about potential declines in acreage and yield. "Farmers are busy in the fields and also they know planting is behind schedule and this could affect acreage or production, so they're in no hurry to sell since prices could go up," said Shawn McCambridge, analyst for Jefferies Bache.
Drier weather this week allowed US farmers to gain some ground in corn planting, which was making record-slow progress when the week began, an agricultural meteorologist said on Friday. Some observers expect seedings to be 50 to 60 percent complete by the end of this week.