GRAINS-Chicago wheat sets one-month high on U.S. drought

Chicago wheat rises six out of the last seven sessions * Drought in U.S. Plains raises wheat supply concerns * Dryness in Argentina, south Brazil may hurt soy crop By Nigel Hunt LONDON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat climbed to aone-month high on Tuesday while soybeans and corn also advancedwith prices supported by a worsening drought across the U.S.grain belt and dryness in parts of Argentina and Brazil. "There are difficult growing conditions for wheat throughoutthe United States," said Luke Mathews, a commodities strategistat the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "The wet bias that existed in Argentina earlier in theseason has now shifted to dry bias. Most people are expectingsome crop stress to evolve." Dry weather should continue through at least the end ofJanuary in the stricken U.S. Plains, which produce most of thecountry''s wheat. Severe drought in the Plains left the U.S. winter wheat cropat an all-time low before it entered dormancy, the U.S.Agriculture Department said late last year. A turn to dry weather in Argentina and in southern Brazil isbeginning to cause concerns about South America''s soybean crop,which is forecast to hit a record high. "Weather remains a concern with less than ideal weather inthe U.S., Europe and South America in particular," RoryDeverell, commodity risk manager with INTL FCStone said. "There are just enough trouble spots to keep the market bidfrom a weather perspective." Chicago Board of Trade March wheat rose 0.8 percent to$7.97-12 a bushel by 1140 GMT, after touching $7.99-34, thehighest level for the contract since Dec. 20, 2012. Milling wheat futures in Paris also advanced with March up 1.00 euro or 0.4 percent at 252.50 euros a tonne. LOW STOCKS "Wheat and soy are still interesting simply because youstill have relatively low ending stocks," said VTB Capitalanalyst Andrey Kryuchenkov. Kryuchenkov said global wheat stocks should start to berebuilt in the second half of the year. "You still have this window for the first two quarters ofthe year where the market should remain well supported." March soybeans rose 1.3 percent to $14.47-12 a busheland March corn added 0.8 percent to $7.33-14 a bushel. Rains will fall over Brazil''s northeast and the maincenter-west soy belt this week, while the southern producingstates should remain dry for a second straight week, localmeteorologist Somar said on Monday. The Brazilian and U.S. governments have raised theirforecasts for a record soybean crop this month, while localanalyst Agroconsult has said it expects record soy from Brazil,adding 900,000 tonnes of soybeans for an expected84-million-tonne soy crop. Brazil will likely produce 2.35 percent less corn from the201213 crop than it did a year earlier after a later soybeanharvest leaves a smaller window for autumn corn planting,analyst Safras & Mercado said on Monday. Still, Safras raised its estimate for corn productionslightly to 70.7 million tonnes from the 69 million tonnes ithad forecast in December, citing improving yields in the south. The market is shifting its focus to planting for U.S. cornand soybean crops. Private analytics firm Informa Economics raised its forecastfor 2013 U.S. corn plantings to 99.303 million acres from 99.026million. If realized, U.S. corn acreage would be the largest since1936. Informa also cut its soybean acreage estimate to 78.777million from 78.962 million. There was support for corn and wheat futures from Chinesedata showing record grain imports. China, the world''s top consumer of grains, imported a recordhigh amount of corn and rice in 2012 while its wheat importssurged to an eight-year high, driven by strong domestic demandand cheap international prices during the first half of theyear.