CHICAGO, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. corn futures bounced on Thursday on bargain buying after hitting a 2-1/2-year low early in the session while soybeans rose 3% as traders shifted their focus back to uncertain crop weather and worries about supplies, analysts said.
A slump in the dollar lifted wheat as well as corn and soybeans, making U.S. grains more competitive globally. The greenback fell to its lowest level since April 2022 on hopes that slowing U.S. inflation will persuade the Fed to pause rate hikes after this month.
Chicago Board of Trade December corn settled up 16-3/4 cents at $5.00-1/2 per bushel, rallying after a slide to $4.81, the lowest on a continuous chart of the most-active corn contract since January 2021.
Benchmark November soybeans ended up 42 cents, or 3.2%, at $13.69-3/4 a bushel and September wheat finished up 7 cents at $6.39-3/4 a bushel.
Corn and soybean futures rallied a day after a selling off when the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected massive harvests of both crops this year, despite drought conditions stressing plants during early stages of development.
By Thursday, traders considered that crops in the United States, the world's second-largest exporter of corn and soybeans, still faced weeks of weather risk.
"We have got a ways to go in the growing season," said Terry Linn, analyst with Linn & Associates in Chicago, adding that soybean supplies remain especially precarious, given a drop in U.S. plantings this year.
"The trade recognizes that we don't have any room to give on (soybean) yield now. There is risk here, and it's skewed to the upside," Linn said.
He noted that the USDA on Thursday confirmed private sales of 315,704 metric tons of new-crop U.S. soybeans to Mexico.
Portions of the northwestern Midwest are set to remain dry in the coming week while the key growth period for soybeans still lies ahead in August.
"USDA reports usually do not have long-lasting effects, suggesting that the market will shift its focus to weather conditions and harvest progress," brokerage Copenhagen Merchants said.
Wheat traders continued to monitor dry conditions for spring wheat in North America, results from winter wheat harvesting across the Northern Hemisphere, and talks to salvage a Black Sea export corridor from Ukraine that Russia is threatening to abandon next week. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore Editing by David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis)
