US corn and soyabeans edged narrowly higher on Wednesday as investors covered short positions after prices fell to multiyear lows earlier in the session and while rains stalled record harvests in the Midwestern crop belt. Wheat futures also were higher, stabilising after their four-year low reached last week. The gains followed the US Agriculture Department's largely bearish quarterly stocks and small grains summaries that were released on Tuesday.
"There's no trigger (for higher prices) other than you have the crop report behind you," said analyst Roy Huckabay of the Linn Group Chicago brokerage. "I don't see anything coming in the October 10 (USDA) report that's not going to be bearish, but when you're down so hard, there's fewer sellers."
Most-active Chicago Board of Trade December corn was up 1 cent at $3.21-3/4 per bushel as of 12:35 pm CDT (1735 GMT) after falling to $3.18-1/4, the lowest level since September 2009. CBOT November soyabeans were up 2-1/4 cents at $9.15-1/2, rebounding from their session low of $9.04, the lowest since February 4, 2010. Substantial rain fell in the western Corn Belt on Tuesday while more showers were likely this week and during the following six to 10 days, delaying fieldwork, the Commodity Weather Group said in a note to clients.
"Corn is trading near its daily high on talk of rains slowing harvest progress over the next few days in the face of a stronger dollar and weaker outside markets," said analyst Brad Metzger of Futures International in Chicago. Plentiful global grain stockpiles and a rising dollar that made US supplies less competitive in international markets continued to anchor corn, soyabean and wheat prices. Each commodity capped large quarterly and monthly declines during the previous session. CBOT wheat was up 3-1/4 cents at $4.81 per bushel, rebounding after the contract's worst monthly loss since 2011. Wheat rose despite US shippers' missing out on a tender to sell grain to top importer Egypt, whose main buying agency instead purchased 120,000 tonnes from France.