Soybeans tick up on short-covering, wheat near one-week high

Chicago soybean futures edged higher on Wednesday as unwinding of short positions by traders supported the market, while wheat firmed on worries over supplies from the Black Sea region.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 added 0.1% to $11.86-1/2 a bushel, as of 0004 GMT. Wheat Wv1 rose 0.1% to $5.53-1/4 a bushel, hovering near a one-week high hit on Tuesday, while corn Cv1 fell 0.1% to $4.39-1/4 a bushel.

The soybean market is being supported by short-covering ahead of the U.S. March 28 Prospective Plantings and quarterly stocks reports, which have a history of jolting markets.

Overall, strong crop prospects in South America are limiting the upside potential in prices.

Brazil’s soybean harvest reached 63% of the planted area as of last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, up 8 percentage points from the previous week and just ahead of 62% seen a year earlier.

Russian attacks on Ukrainian agriculture infrastructure over the weekend revived worries about disruption to massive grain exports through the Black Sea. Huge supplies of cheap Russian wheat continue to hang over the market.

Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT wheat, corn and soymeal futures contracts on Tuesday and net sellers of soybean and soyoil futures, traders said. COMFUND/CBT

Tags: harvest, soybeans, wheat, soyoil, futures, soymeal, Market