By Naveen Thukral
Chicago corn rose more than 2% on Monday to its highest in one week, while soybeans climbed to their highest level since late-July as concerns over hot and dry weather conditions in the U.S. Midwest buoyed the markets.
Wheat advanced for a second session, supported by escalating tensions in the Black Sea region that are likely to further reduce world supply.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Cv1 was up 2.3% at $5.04-1/4 a bushel, as of 0014 GMT, after climbing earlier in the session to its highest since Aug. 11 at $5.06 a bushel.
* Soybeans Sv1 climbed 1.7% to $13.75-3/4 a bushel, having risen to $13.78 a bushel – their highest since July 28. Wheat Wv1 added 0.8% to $6.45 a bushel, after jumping to $6.46 a bushel, the highest since Aug. 9.
* Weather forecasts are showing little rain and hotter temperatures for the rest of August in the U.S. Midwest, raising worries over crop yields. Soybeans are more vulnerable to potential damage because August is the crop’s critical month for development.
* This week, the market will assess findings of the annual Pro Farmer crop tour, which will examine corn and soybean fields across the Midwest.
* Russia said Ukrainian drones had attacked four separate regions in a flurry of attempted strikes on Sunday, injuring five people and forcing two of Moscow’s airports to briefly divert flights.
* Grain traders have been nervous amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine which could disrupt Black Sea crop shipments since Moscow quit the U.N.-backed export deal for Ukraine in July. Both countries are major grain exporters.
* In news, China’s soybean imports from the United States tumbled 62% in July from a year earlier while shipments from Brazil, its top supplier, surged 32%, data showed on Sunday, spurred by a bumper crop and lower prices in the Latin American country.
* India is set for its driest August in more than a century, with scant rainfall likely to persist across large areas, partly because of the El Niño weather pattern, two weather department officials told Reuters on Friday.
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