NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures rose on Tuesday, rebounding sharply from early losses on lift from technical trading and data showing a pickup in exports of the American oilseeds.
Corn prices weakened, and wheat futures fell sharply.
The most-actively traded Chicago Board of Trade soybean contract rose 0.6% to $12.71-1/2 per bushel. In early trading it had fallen to $12.54-1/4, its lowest since December 2021.
"People trading the market right now don't have a lot of staying power, they're not building for the long-term," said Scott Harms, senior ag risk adviser with Archer Financial Services.
He said the choppy trade was caught between technical short-sellers without the leverage to "hold it down," and not enough bullish news "to put together a large rally."
Soybean farmers did get a ray of light when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported export inspections of
1.036 million tons
of soybeans for the week ending Oct. 5, the highest since mid-February. The release was marred after USDA was forced to
correct
even-rosier figures released earlier in the day.
Weekly USDA data
showed
the soybean harvest 43% complete, slightly ahead of an average of
analysts polled by Reuters
, with the crop condition declining somewhat to 51% rated "good" or "excellent" compared with 52% in the prior week.
CBOT wheat fell after a short-lived rally in the prior session fuelled by a spike in energy prices. December soft red winter wheat shed 2.5% to settle at $5.57 a bushel.
Traders were adjusting positions ahead of the USDA's Oct. 12 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.
Corn prices fell 0.6% to $4.85-1/2 a bushel, as traders awaited weekly USDA crop progress data. The report, released after the close, said the corn crop was 34% harvested as of Sunday, in line with estimates. (Reporting by Zachary Goelman in New York, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Peter Hobson in Canberra; editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)
