Corn rose in Chicago, reducing a weekly drop, on concern that rain in Argentina came too late to shelter crops in the world’s second-largest exporter from damage caused by dry weather. March-delivery corn advanced 0.5 percent to $6.5425 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 12:19 p.m. Paris time. The contract is heading for a 0.5 percent decline this week. Rains and storms forecast in Argentina through next week will fail to revive corn crops damaged by hot and dry weather during pollination, Telvent DTN Inc. said yesterday. “It’s a major issue,” Tetsu Emori, a commodity fund manager at Astmax Co., said by phone from Tokyo. The global market is relying on shipments from Argentina after the U.S., the largest exporter, completed its harvest, he said. “The market is focusing on Argentina and Brazil.” Argentina’s core corn-growing region in the center of the Pampas region suffered water shortages during the last months of 2010 and early this month. The dry weather was caused by a La Nina weather event in the Pacific Ocean. Corn harvesting in Argentina starts next month. The Buenos Aires Cereals Exchanged kept its corn-production forecast unchanged at 19.5 million metric tons yesterday, after lowering it last week from 20.4 million tons. Wheat Slips March-delivery wheat fell 0.3 percent to $8.4375 a bushel, trimming the weekly gain to 2.3 percent. Milling wheat for March delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris slipped 0.3 percent to 264 euros ($362.34) a ton. Argentina’s wheat harvest was completed in the past week and the crop is estimated to have almost doubled to 15 million tons from 7.9 million tons a year earlier, the cereals exchange said. That compares with a U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate earlier this month of 14 million tons. Exporters in the U.S. sold 1.047 million tons of wheat in the week ended Jan. 20, compared with 1.1 million tons a week earlier, the USDA said yesterday. Soybeans for March delivery declined 0.1 percent to $13.975 a bushel in Chicago, for a weekly drop of l percent. Rains forecast in Argentina will help ease stress to the nation’s soybean crops, improving harvest prospects, DTN said yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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